# Biggest Mistake in History?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 15, 2002, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454 "2002-03-15T12:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Kyuzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@Kyuzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyuzo)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/61 "2002-03-18T00:15:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by glee \* > \*\* > First, when IBM wanted to discuss making their first ever PC they needed an operating system. The first guy they visited was out surfing. So they tried another unknown bloke. He was called Bill Gates… > \*\* I guess that’s the Paul Harvey version of the story. You might want to read a little more about Gary Kildall the “first guy” who wrote the first operating system (CP/M), his company, and what really happened that day. Kildall, his wife, and their lawyer definitely made a huge mistake, but it wasn’t as cut and dried as that makes it sound. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by glee \* > \*\* > At that meeting IBM could have offered Bill a flat fee. Instead they offered him licensing rights on every copy of the operating system._\* Not true. As Gates himself says: [Triumph of the Nerds: The Transcripts, Part II](http://www.pbs.org/nerds/part2.html) > [@](#): > > …the deal we had with IBM, because they had a fixed fee er, we got about $80,000 - we got some other money for some special work we did er, but no royalty from them. You’ll notice that IBM did in fact pay Microsoft only a flat fee for the reverse engineered version of CP/M. What Microsoft made its money on was licenses on clones of the IBM machines. Not something IBM specifically offered him. I tend to agree that the destruction of the library of Alexandria was the biggest mistake in history. ---
**Author:** ![1kBR\_Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/dc4da7/32.png) [@1kBR\_Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1kBR_Kid)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/62 "2002-03-18T00:31:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*Maybe not the biggest, but the majority ruling in _Gore v. Bush_ deserves mention. …" \*\* **FOR THE LOVE OF GOD** would you get over it? I really think you need professional help for this problem of yours. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/63 "2002-03-18T03:13:12Z")
‘Hey! Let’s use violence to settle disputes!’ [extremely heavy sigh] ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/64 "2002-03-18T22:21:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 1kBR Kid \* > **FOR THE LOVE OF GOD** would you get over it? Hey, we’re talking about a political coup in my favorite country on the planet, here. It’s not something trivial to “get over.” But check back with me in 2005. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rubicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Rubicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubicon)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/65 "2002-03-19T00:45:51Z")
rjung, even if you believe that the ruling was a “mistake”, you have to believe that we are better off for it…I’m pretty sure the Bearded One himself (Gore, not Bin Laden, although I see the similarity) would agree. Future biggest mistake: “First strike” in attempt to “win” nuclear war. Modern biggest mistake: Leaving Europe a mess after World War I (all due respect to the Forgiving Sniper in the earlier post). All-time biggest mistake: When the first tribe broke into two separate and competing tribes. Funniest biggest mistake: William Shatner’s and Leonard Nimoy’s albums. Personal biggest mistake: Leaving Dad’s Penthouse in the bathroom instead of returning it to Top-Secret Underbed Lair. Biggest cultural mistake: Permitting the first hygeine advert on television, leading directly to 1980s on-air discussions of “feeling fresh” and the current ubiquitous radio ads for penis-lengthening creams and pills. Not that I need them. Biggest mistake that turned out OK in the end (tie): Accidental discoveries of photography and penecillin. Biggest highly foreseeable mistake: No, seriously, I think we can win a land war in Asia (multiple contributors). Biggest mistake almost (but not) made: Playboy’s 1962 attempt to lock up Liz Taylor for a forty year layout-per-year contract. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/66 "2002-03-19T18:53:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 5 time champ \* > \*\*Um, what is generally considered to be one of the most brilliant tactical successes ever, and worst strategic blunder a nation ever committed-- that is, of course, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. \*\* Not the biggest ever… It was quickly followed by one far worse: Hitler declaring war on the US. Had he kept his trap shut, or better yet, condemed the attack and let the Japanese take their beating, he’d have effectively removed the US from the European conflict for three or four years. With America being royally pissed with Japan, Roosevelt’s desire to intervene in the European war, first, would’ve been pushed to the sidelines on a wave of righteous anger. Hitler’d have had enough time to force Britain to a negotiated peace, leaving him a much more free hand in Russia, where Germany might have achieved stalemate, and a defacto control over Europe. I’m still voting for the burning of the Library at Alexandria as the biggest mistake of all time, though. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/67 "2002-03-19T21:03:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rubicon \* > rjung, even if you believe that the ruling was a “mistake”, you have to believe that we are better off for it… Don’t make assumptions. 🙂 And don’t mistake a high popularity rating for competence. Carrot Top could’ve been President on 9/11/2001 and gotten a 94% approval rating afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454/68 "2002-03-19T21:31:15Z")
Christy Mathewson for Amos Rusie. Babe Ruth for cash and a mortgage on Fenway Park (???!) McLean Stevenson leaving M_A_S\*H for his own series. I have to concur with the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbor. Cornwallis’ decision to encamp on a peninsula. The guy (I don’t remember his name, but I saw a special about it on PBS a few years back) who had the opportunity to license DOS before Bill Gates but turned it down. I’d like to think I can check back on this thread in a hundred years and find “hijacking those planes and flying them into the World Trade Center.” Zev Steinhardt [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-mistake-in-history/98454.md?page=3)