Fun

Citations de visionnaires

Par Jefferson ⋅ samedi 09 juin 2007 à 10:12 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Commenter

Je ne résiste pas à placer ici quelques savoureuses citations grapillées ici et là et dont les auteurs auraient sûrement préféré se mettre la tête dans une bassine d’eau pendant ving minutes plutôt que de les avoir laissées à la postérité :

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
- IBM Chairman Thomas Watson, 1943

“Get your feet off my desk, get out of here, you stink, and we’re not going to buy your product.”
- Joe Keenan, President of Atari, in 1976 responding to Steve Jobs’ offer to sell him rights to the new personal computer he and Steve Wozniak developed

“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.”
- Ken Olson (President of Digital Equipment Corporation) at the Convention of the World Future Society in Boston in 1977

“An amazing invention - but who would ever want to use one?”
made a call from Washington to Pennsylvania with Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, patented on 7 March 1876
- Rutherford B. Hayes (American Statesman and President (19), 1822-1893)

“Les films parlants sont bien intéressants mais je ne crois pas qu’ils restent à la mode. La synchronisation parfaite du son et de l’image est absolument impossible.”
- Louis Lumière, 1920, co-inventeur du cinématographe

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
- Lord Kelvin, outstanding leader in the physical sciences of the 19th century

“The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad.”
- Michigan Savings Bank’s president, to Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham (He ignored the advice and invested $5000 in Ford stock, selling it later for $12.5 million.)

“Forget it. No Civil War picture ever made a nickel.”
- MGM Executive advising against investing in Gone With the Wind.

Oui c’est vrai, c’est toujours facile de se moquer à postériori. Mais c’est tellement bon.