Charles H. Duell was the Commissioner of the U.S. Office of Patents in 1899. As Mr. Duell was looking into the future – the 1900s – and his prospects for being busy at the patent office in the coming years, he (apparently) stated:
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Ha! Can you imagine! Just think for a second about what has been invented since 1900, or much less, in the last TWO years. Which led us to do a little research together and come up with a few other good ones:
1. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
-Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
2. “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?”
-H.M. Warner, Warner
3. “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”
-Western Union internal memo, 1876
4. “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
-Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
5. “Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.”
-1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard’s revolutionary rocket work.
P.S. Nasa has this thing now called the Goddard Space Center
6. “The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible.”
-A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
Has anyone ever told you that you were crazy for having an idea? We hear it all the time, but that’s why we’re Oddpodz.
Do people that say “no” “never” and “can’t” drive you nuts!? Share your crazy ideas with us, or any stories where you triumphed over the naysayers.
