Open Mind

R.M Sherfield once said, "the greatest reward of an education is to be able to face the world with an open mind." Similarly, Malcolm Forbes declared that "education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."

Photo: Sunset, Penang (Mar 06)

"Your mind is like a parachute. It works best when it is open." - Anthony J. D΄Angelo
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Here are some humorous reasons why we should keep an open mind, especially if it concerns preditions about the future:

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates (1981)

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"Everything that can be invented has been invented." - Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents (1899)

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"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.

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"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." - A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. Smith went on to found Federal Express.

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"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).

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"Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value." - Editorial in the Boston Post (1865)

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"There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will." - Albert Einstein (1932)