Ken Olsen Quotes

I can’t see any reason that anyone would want a computer of his own,” DEC president Ken Olsen declared at a May 1974 meeting

I can’t see any reason that anyone would want a computer of his own,” DEC president Ken Olsen declared at a May 1974 meeting where his operations committee was debating whether to create a smaller version of its PDP-8 for personal consumers.

Kurzweil cites numerous quotations from prominent people in history who completely underestimated the progress and impact of technology. Here are a few examples. IBM’s chairman, Thomas J. Watson, in 1943: ‘I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.’ Digital Equipment Corporation’s co-founder Ken Olsen in 1977: ‘There’s no reason for individuals to have a computer in their home.’ Bill Gates in 1981: ‘640,000 bytes of memory ought to be enough for anybody.

The top forty or so DEC executives were flown up to Heald Pond, Ken Olsen’s hideaway in Maine,

As I started this journey into trying to turn our ideas about software into a viable business, I found a model in DEC’s Ken Olsen. He learned as he went, and over time became a master of his business. As an engineer, I figured he had to be strong in math, and since math demanded logical thinking and sharp problem-solving, I reasoned that he—and by extension, I—could pick up whatever skills and knowledge were needed. Linear algebra, topology, and the rest of Math 55 tested my limits. By comparison, payroll, finance, even hiring, marketing, and whatever else it took to run a company would be well within my grasp. It was a simplistic view that years later I would be disabused of, but, hey, I was nineteen and that’s how I saw it. —