Progress Depends on the Unreasonable

Weblog:		The Other Side Of The Inertia Coin
Subject:		Progress Depends on the Unreasonable
Date:		2005-03-14 09:09:54
From:		TimmMurray

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw A company was once did market research on a new potential product. The research said that nobody would buy it. All the beancounters said to kill the project. But the CEO said to go ahead with it, just because he thought it was cool. The result was that the Walkman was one of the most successful products Sony ever made. What do the beancounters say about Firefox now? Who cares! They're rational. That's ok, because they're paid to be rational. But rationality in itself is insufficient for progress, and may often be a hinderance.