Careful what you say!
April 24, 2008 | By Joel Dehlin | 2 Comments
Freakonomics is one of the blogs I track that I actually try to read. Recently, Fred Shapiro (Yale Book of Quotations) has been blegging to find quotes that sound outlandish and are attributed to famous people.
For example,
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home” is attributed to Kenneth Olsen, founder of DEC.
And
“I think there is a world market for about five computers” is pinned to Tom Watson of IBM fame.
You’ve heard these kinds of quotes before and they’re typically accepted as fact. Most of them, including the reported Bill Gates 640k comment, are not not direct quotes. They are heresay, often with the only verified quote several layers removed from the original author.
One can easily imagine seeds of truth in some of these sayings. Maybe the purported authors were joking. Maybe they said something close, or were using hyperbole to make a point. Maybe they were being sarcastic. Regardless, someone remembered it the way they wanted to and these guys got stuck with the quotes.
How often does this happen to you? Recently I was in a meeting with a sharp member of my staff who quoted me completely erroneously. I corrected him and he argued with me about what I had said. I was amazed that he and I had such a different recollection of a comment I had made. While I know what I meant, what matters is what he thought I said.
Be careful what you say! Repeat yourself. Be consistent. And tell the truth!
It’s too easy to be misquoted.
KJ said...
It is so true.
I too keep telling those around me that what matters is what others think we said and mean and not so much what we know we said and meant.
April 25, 2008 2:12 pm #
Dave Kellogg said...
Three thoughts: (1) this is a good argument for clear meeting notes in the every day organizational environment, (2) it’s another example of why context is king, and (3) sometimes such quotes are actually urban legend, i.e., they were never said — e.g., snopes.com says the famous “Al Gore invented the Internet claim” is false. Then again, how do we know that snopes is right!?
May 5, 2008 4:51 pm #