How many times a week are you told by others that your way of doing things could be better, meaning their way.  It’s amazing to me how everyone  thinks their way is the absolute best way.  I can understand it totally because at times I feel that way myself.

I’ve had close friends and family with no practical experience in much of anything tell me how I should invest my money, romance a woman, what food to eat, and what kind of job I should have. Everyone is an effing expert in everything it seems.  It’s funny that the guy with no girlfriends or prospects is the expert on romance.  The guy who doesn’t have two cents in his pocket or bank account  is the one telling me what stocks are going to go through the roof.  Maybe it’s the woman with no children who spends all of her time telling her married girlfriends how to raise their children.  It’s maddening.

To quote one of my favorite song lyrics, “Opinions are like assholes and everybody’s got one.”  I’ve learned over the years who I can rely on for good information and those hundreds who haven’t had a good idea about anything in recent memory.  I’ve also learned not to voice any of my own opinions unless I’m asked.  I may stand in a group of friends and listen to them tell each other how to live their lives without saying a single word.  It makes me the guy who never has to hear those dreaded words, “Your advice sucked.”

I suppose it’s always been that way.  People telling people what will happen in the future, how they should live their lives and they do it in such a way it’s seemed logical at the time.  Here are some predictions I’ve discovered from so-called experts that were so bad I just had to pass them along.

• "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
• "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
  Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
• "I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year."
  The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
• "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
  Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
• "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.
• "We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
  Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
• "Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
  Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
• "Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy."
  Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
• "The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
  Admiral William Leahy, US Atomic Bomb Project.
• "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
  Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
• "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
  Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
• "Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
  Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the vacuum tube and father of television.
• "Everything that can be invented has been invented."
  Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

As you can see even people with impressive resumes aren’t experts in everything like they think they are.  I‘m certainly glad I never had these experts whispering in my ear and giving me advice about anything important.  Everything comes back to good old “common sense”.  Constantly being negative about things just stifles  creativity and can make you one miserable and unhappy SOB and also reward you with an honorable mention on this blog.