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

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thank you very much for sharing a valuable lead, Dave. While exploring
the version of the quote attributed to Walter Chrysler I did come
across a 2011 book called "The Lazy Winner" that included a discussion
of General von Moltke and his four types of officers on the same page
as the saying attributed to Chrysler.

When I searched for the Moltke quotation about the value of lazy
officers I was not able to find it before a 2003 book called "The Lazy
Way to Success" by Fred Gratzon. Have you found any cites before 2003?

It is possible that the Moltke's translators expressed his ideas using
different phrases or different vocabulary, and I have not determined
the proper search expressions. It is also possible that Gratzon or
someone else moved Moltke's discussion of officers from the German
language to English relatively recently.

There are a few quotations credited to Moltke in quotation references,
but none matches the quote about four types of officers, lazy
officers, or a value matrix.

JL: Have you read anything by Moltke in your research? Based on your
comment you do not recognize this notion of four types of officers.

Garson


On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 1:19 AM, Dave Hause <dwhause at cablemo.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: I choose a lazy person to do a hard job (Attributed to
>               Bill Gates) (Congressional Record Help Request)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I see this as going much further back:
> http://old-soldier-colonel.blogspot.com/2011/07/field-marshal-moltkes-four-types-of.html
> goes into:
> Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke (1800-1891)
> developed this interesting Value Matrix to categorize his officer corps.
> . Smart & Lazy: I make them my Commanders because they make the right thing
> happen but find the easiest way to accomplish the mission.
> ...
> Although I thought I remembered it as attributed to Otto von Bismarck.
> Dave Hause, dwhause at cablemo.net
> Waynesville, MO
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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