Quotable Quotes: Inventors
by Miki Saxon
People who invent things are endlessly fascinating. To see around corners; to conceive of something where there was nothing is an amazing act.
Inventors are also been known to stick both feet in their mouth for real, not as an urban legend.
DEC (it built minicomputers) founder Ken Olson said, There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. Obviously, he was a little shortsighted.
Another technologist, Robert Metcalfe (co-inventor of Ethernet), missed the mark by eons when he said, The internet will catastrophically collapse in 1996. Well, nobody’s right all the time.
Beyond inventing stuff, inventors often have excellent insights on people and the act of living.
Erno (the cube) Rubik said, Our whole life is solving puzzles. Which, most people will agree, makes him a master of understatement.
Edwin Armstrong (invented FM) shows both his insight and sense of humor in this observation, It ain’t ignorance that causes all the trouble in this world. It’s the things people know that ain’t so.
However, if you believe Dean Kamen (think Segway) it doesn’t matter anyway, If history is any indication, all truths will eventually turn out to be false.
Here’s a great sound bite from David Sarnoff (RCA and NBC) that should be embedded in every manager’s brain, Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people.
Right alongside this one from Edwin (Polaroid) Land, The most important thing about power is to make sure you don’t have to use it.
Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bojo/4503374874/
