Entrepreneurs Have Been Proving Experts Wrong Forever

Commentary from Ilya Pestov on FEE.org:

Below, I’ve listed the very worst predictions, which show how even the titans of industry don’t always know what they’re talking about. Whether they were predictions about technological progress, adoption rates, or market potential, we can all agree that these predictions were dead wrong.

1876: “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.” — William Orton, President of Western Union.

1876: “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, chief engineer, British Post Office.

1889: “Fooling around with alternating current (AC) is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever.” — Thomas Edison.

1903: “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty — a fad.” —President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company.

1921: “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” — Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter’s call for investment in the radio.  [read more]

Physicists thought one time that atoms could not be manipulated individually. Now, we have nanotechnology. Unless there is a scientific reason why a product cannot be done then sometime in the future it could be. Even a scientific principles can change. One time scientists thought the sun revolved around the earth and the moon didn’t have craters.

Even in the fine arts experts can be wrong. A record company told The Beatles “we don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”

The lesson here: Be skeptical or leery of experts.