Wisdom (none RP)

From: Elaine Hunt (ehunt@ces.clemson.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 31 2000 - 14:39:19 EEST


Practical Reflections and Tools for Meaningful, Sustainable Corporate Change
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"Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world."
~Arthur Schopenhauer~

In 1927, film producer Harry Warner said, "Who the hell wants to hear
actors talk?"

In 1905, Grover Cleveland said, "Sensible and responsible women do not want
to vote."

In the 1830s, Dionysius Lardner, author of "The Steam Engine Explained and
Illustrated," said, "Rail travel at high speeds is not possible because
passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia."

When told of Robert Fulton's steamboat, Napoleon said, "What, sir, would
you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire
under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to
such nonsense."

Thomas Edison said, "Just as certain as death, George Westinghouse will
kill a customer within six months after he puts in an electric system of
any size," and "the phonograph has no commercial value at all."

"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be considered as a means of
communication," said the president of Western Union in 1876. "The device is
of inherently no value to us."

The president of Michigan Savings Banks advised Henry Ford's lawyer not to
invest in the Ford Motor Company because, he said, "The horse is here to
stay, the automobile is a novelty."

In 1921, radio pioneer David Sarnoff said, "The wireless music box has no
imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in
particular?"

In 1926, Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube, said, "While
theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and
financially I consider it an impossibility."

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out anyway,"
said the president of Decca Records, rejecting the Beatles in 1962.

Darryl Zanuck observed, in 1946, "Television won't last because people will
soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."

The chairman of IBM said, "I think there is a world market for about five
computers," in 1943.

"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home,"
said the president of Digital Electronic Corporation in 1977.

Visionary designer Buckminster Fuller said, in 1966, "By 2000, politics
will simply fade away. We will not see any political parties."

Social scientist David Riesman declared, in 1967, "If anything remains more
or less unchanged, it will be the role of women."

As Fats Waller, one of the great philosophers of the twentieth century,
observed, "One never knows, do one?"

  That is an excellent adage for futurists.

*******************************************************************
Opinions, suggestions, and other controversial matter VOID where prohibited.
"Theory is when you know everything and nothing works;
     practice is when everything works and nobody knows why.
     Here we combine theory with practice: nothing works
     and nobody knows why." -- Seen at a library in Brazil.
******************************************************************
Elaine T. Hunt, Director elaine.hunt@ces.clemson.edu
Laboratory to Advance Industrial Prototyping
Clemson University 206 Fluor Daniel Bldg.
Clemson, SC 29634-0925
864-656-0321 (voice) 864-656-4435 (fax)
http://www.vr.clemson.edu/credo/persall/persall.html
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