Quote: I choose a lazy person to do a hard job (Attributed to Bill Gates) (Congressional Record Help Request)

[Shapiro, Fred]

HeinOnline is not the only source for congressional hearings; ProQuest is by far the best source for them.  Google Books also has a lot of hearings, although I am not sure whether they cover this time period.  I searched HeinOnline and ProQuest and did not find this quote in hearings; I searched HeinOnline and did not find it in the Congressional Record.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Baker, John [JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 6:16 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Quote: I choose a lazy person to do a hard job (Attributed to              Bill Gates) (Congressional Record Help Request)

I don't have access to this, even though it would make my day job easier if I did.  But perhaps I can give some pointers.

It would be extraordinary if this remark were reprinted in the Congressional Record.  It was almost certainly given in a statement to or testimony before the committee then known as the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.  In light of the informal nature of the quotation, testimony seems more likely, probably in response to questioning rather than part of the prepared testimony.

Hearings are published in full text, so it should be entirely possible to track down the hearing in question.  It would have been a hearing from early in the 80th Congress, which convened on January 3, 1947; presumably it would be a hearing held on Friday, January 31, 1947.  The only online source for hearings from that period, as far as I know, is HeinOnline's U.S. Congressional Documents collection.  However, hearings are also stored by U.S. depository libraries, which should include any large university library.  Hearings from that period typically have been archived to fiche.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of ADSGarson O'Toole
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 5:40 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Quote: I choose a lazy person to do a hard job (Attributed to Bill Gates) (Congressional Record Help Request)

The following statement in various forms has been attributed to tech titan Bill Gates:

[Begin excerpt]
I choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.
[End excerpt]

I've been asked to investigate this saying. Similar statements have been ascribed to Walter Chrysler the founder of Chrysler Corporation and others.

I hypothesize that the quotation was derived from the following short news item from 1947.

[ref] 1947 February 1, Omaha World Herald, "To Solve Hard Problem, Give It to 'Lazy Man'" (CTPS News Service), Quote Page 1, Column 2, Omaha, Nebraska. (NewspaperArchive)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
To Solve Hard Problem, Give It to 'Lazy Man'

A tip on how to solve difficult production problems was given the Senate Labor Committee Friday by Clarence E. Bleicher, president of the Chrysler Corporation's De Soto division.

"When I have a tough job in the plant and can't find an easy way to do it," Mr. Bleicher said, "I have a lazy man put on it. He'll find an easy way to do it in 10 days. Then we adopt that method."
[End excerpt]

You can help trace this quotation if you are willing and if you have access to a database of the Congressional Record such as the one provided by ProQuest. It is possible that the testimony by Clarence E.
Bleicher was placed into the Congressional Record.

If you find a match please send me the small PDF with the matching text (or jpeg screen shots). I am trying to create a complete and accurate citation. Hence, data such as (1) title of the hearing (2) name of the committee (3) date of the testimony (4) name of the speaker (should be Bleicher) etcetera are important.

If you look and do not find a match please let me know.

With appreciation,
Garson

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