Robert Metcalfe Quotes

• I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Internet, Collapse, Supernova

  "Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis: Meditations on Computer Systems Development". Book by Patrick McDermott, 2002.

  49 Copy quote

• In network theory, the value of a system grows as approximately the square of the number of users of the system.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Squares, Numbers, Programming

  7 Copy quote

• Invention is a flower, innovation is a weed.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Weed, Flower, Innovation

  "Ethernet inventor on IoT, innovation, more: Bob Metcalfe Q&A". "RCR Wireless News" with Sean Kinney, www.rcrwireless.com. November 12, 2015.

  8 Copy quote

• When you're running a company, creating jobs is the last thing you want to. When you're running a company you want to employ as few people as possible, and yet you inadvertently create jobs.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Running, Jobs, Creating

  4 Copy quote

• Innovation makes the world go round. It brings prosperity and freedom.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Innovation, World, Prosperity

  4 Copy quote

• You don't grow the economy by growing government.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Government, Growing, Economy

  4 Copy quote

• I've screwed up and I've overcommitted and it's typical of me.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Typical, Screwed Up

  "The Legend Of Bob Metcalfe" by Scott Kirsner, www.wired.com. November 01, 1998.

  4 Copy quote

• I saw that there are people who will connive against innovation. They're hostile to it. And that has shaped my behavior ever since.

  Robert Metcalfe

  People, Innovation, Saws

  "The Legend Of Bob Metcalfe" by Scott Kirsner, www.wired.com. November 01, 1998.

  6 Copy quote

• My advice is never let a publicist call you a 'visionary.' I've hung out with the visionaries at the famed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. I've been a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. I wouldn't touch 'visionary' with a 10-foot pole.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Successful, Feet, Entrepreneur

  "The Visionary Thing". www.wired.com. November 01, 1999.

  8 Copy quote

• Where visionaries can be good at persuasion, CEOs are good at wielding authority. Visionaries transcend organizations, resources, and current realities, while CEOs master them.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Reality, Organization, Visionaries

  "The Visionary Thing". www.wired.com. November 01, 1999.

  4 Copy quote

• The world needs a better understanding of how to encourage innovation. And innovators need to get better at it. Sign me up.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Understanding, Innovation, Get Better

  7 Copy quote

• Grove giveth and Gates taketh away.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Funny, Witty, Humorous

  8 Copy quote

• In seven to ten years video traffic on the Internet will exceed data and voice traffic combined.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Years, Data, Games

  4 Copy quote

• Almost all of the many predictions now being made about 1996 hinge on the internet's continuing exponential growth. But I predict the internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Growth, Internet, Predictions

  "Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis: Meditations on Computer Systems Development". Book by Patrick Mcdermott, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

• If you cannot be on the project each day to check on things, then you should not try and be your own contractor.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Trying, Each Day, Checks

  10 Copy quote

• I consider what I write to be literature. I choose the words carefully.

  Robert Metcalfe

  Writing, Literature

  4 Copy quote

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