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Examples where innovation was ignored and where millions of dollars were lost
“Heavier-than-air
flying machines are impossible.”
Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society,
1895
“Stocks have
reached what looks like a permanently high plateau/”
Prof. Irving Fisher, Yale Economics,
1929
“Everything that
can be invented has been invented.”
Charles Duell, Commissioner, Federal
Patent Office, 1899
"Computers in the future may weigh
no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the
relentless march of science, 1949
“This telephone
has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of
communication.
The device is inherently of no value to
us."
“There is not the
slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable"
Albert Einstein, 1932
"Who the hell wants to hear actors
talk?"
H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
"There is no reason anyone would
want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, CEO founder of Digital, 1977
"The concept is interesting and
well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be
feasible."
A
“The commercial
production of incandescent lighting is utterly impossible and its proponent
(Edison) demonstrates the most airy ignorance of the fundamental principles
both of electricity and dynamism.” In discussing
Thomas Edison’s idea of electric lighting, a
British Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, 1878
“Television won’t be able to hold onto any market it captures after the first six
months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
Darryl Zanuck, Head of 20th Century Fox
movie studios, 1946
“We don't like
their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the
Beatles, 1962
“Two years from
now spam will be solved.”
Bill Gates, 2004
"The difference between a good movie and a bad movie
is getting everyone to make the same movie."
Francis Ford Coppola