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About this quote

What does it mean?
Thomson dismissed radio and X-rays as having no future or being fraudulent respectively.
In plain terms
He said radio was useless and X-rays were a scam.
What can you take from it?
Expert predictions can be wrong about new technologies.

Where it applies

  • forecasting
  • investment decisions
  • technology adoption

Putting it to work

  • challenging consensus
  • re-evaluating claims
  • risk assessment

Questions to consider

  • What new tech do people dismiss?
  • How do you assess risk?

Another view

Both radio and X-rays became foundational technologies in the 20th century.

More from William Thomson

  1. Tesla has contributed more to electrical science than any man up to his time.

    Permalink to quote #8

  2. Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense.

    Permalink to quote #7

  3. There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.

    Permalink to quote #6

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