Every day we hear predictions from various “pundits” of various disciplines – most often the political variety these days. And, more often than not, they dispense their wit and wisdom with an air that suggests there is no doubt whatsoever about the veracity of their issue – that they could not possibly be wrong. It\’s enough to give a regular Joe or Jane an inferiority complex.
Except….there is no reason to feel that way. Pundits are pundits are wrong. A lot.
Want some proof? Ok. Here, just sent to me by our pal Relo Myra, is a list of 25 all-time beauts.
Read them, and see if you don\’t feel a whole lot less cowed by the “pundit” crowd:
25″There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy willever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to beshattered at will.” – Albert Einstein, 1932
24 “We don\’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the wayout.” – Decca Recording Company on declining to sign theBeatles, 1962
23 “This \’telephone\’ has too many shortcomings to be seriouslyconsidered as a means of communication. The device is inherently ofno value to us.” – Western Union internal memo, 1876
22 “Reagan doesn\’t have that presidential look.” – UnitedArtists executive after rejecting Reagan as lead in the 1964 film TheBest Man
21 “Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers,unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” – Dr. DionysiusLardner, 1830
20 “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
19 “X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” – Lord Kelvin,President of the Royal Society, 1883
18″Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as aconspicuous failure.” – -Henry Morton, president of theStevens Institute of Technology, on Edison\’s light bulb, 1880
17 “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only anovelty—a fad.” – -The president of the Michigan SavingsBank advising Henry Ford\’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford MotorCo., 1903
16 “Television won\’t last because people will soon get tired ofstaring at a plywood box every night.” – -Darryl Zanuck, movieproducer, 20th Century Fox, 1946
15 “No one will pay good money to get from Berlin to Potsdam inone hour when he can ride his horse there in one day for free.”- King William I of Prussia, on trains, 1864
14 “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer inhis home.” – -Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder ofDigital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in a talk given to a 1977 WorldFuture Society meeting in Boston
13 “If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the productionof lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.” – -W.C. Heuper,National Cancer Institute, 1954
12 “No, it will make war impossible.” – -Hiram Maxim,inventor of the machine gun, in response to the question “Willthis gun not make war more terrible?” from Havelock Ellis, anEnglish scientist, 1893
11 “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Whowould pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” –Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter\’s call forinvestment in the radio in 1921
10 “There will never be a bigger plane built.” – -ABoeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engineplane that holds ten people
9 “How, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind andcurrents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me,I have not the time to listen to such nonsense.” – NapoleonBonaparte, when told of Robert Fulton’s steamboat, 1800s
8″ The idea that cavalry will be replaced by these iron coaches isabsurd. It is little short of treasonous.” – Comment ofAide-de-camp to Field Marshal Haig, at tank demonstration, 1916
7″ I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort ofsubmarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering atsea.” – HG Wells, British novelist, in 1901
6″ The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 atmost.” – IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying thephotocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959
5 “The Americanshave need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty ofmessenger boys.” – Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, BritishPost Office, 1878
4 “It\’ll be gone by June.” – Variety Magazine on Rock n\’Roll, 1955
3″And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all,safaris in Vietnam” – -Newsweek, predicting popular holidaysfor the late 1960s.
2″ When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light willclose with it and no more will be heard of it.” – Oxfordprofessor Erasmus Wilson
1″ A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth\’s atmosphere.”- New York Times, 1936
I can\’t swear every quote you just read is accurate (though I suspect they all are). But I have a sneaking suspicion they make you feel much more comfortable about having opinions that disagree with the pundit set.
Anyway, I hope so.
