In October 1997, Rick Borovoy and Sunil Vemuri ran the "meme tag" project at the Media Lab sponsor meetings. Below are a few of the memes.

Value is not in the content;
it's in the links.

—Ken Haase

 

It's not multimedia;
it's appropriate media

—Walter Bender

 

Content is a commodity;
context is the value added

—Walter Bender

 

Technology is anything
invented after you were born.

—Alan Kay

 

HDTV stands for
highly dubious TV.

—Walter Bender

 

The problem's not what you don't know;
it's what you know that just ain't so.

—Josh Billings

 

The problem with airplane travel
is that it is too safe.

—Marvin Minsky

 

I want a good storyteller to
tell "me" a good story.

—Walter Bender

 

Interactivity is the exception
rather than the rule.

—Walter Bender

 

The Internet has grown so
rapidly because it's transparent.

—Walter Bender

 

Compressed data should be
ammenable to manipulation.

—Walter Bender

 

3 secrets to good writing:
(1) revise; (2) revise; (3) revise

—Don Murray

 

When charging the mound,
hit the pitcher with your bat,
but don't bite his ear!

—Walter Bender

 

The Daily Us and the Daily Me are
part of the same continuum.

—Walter Bender

 

There is no bigger lie
than a picture never lies.

—Walter Bender

 

The medium is not the message;
the message is the message.

—Walter Bender

 

Interactivity is orthagonal
to personalization.

—Walter Bender

 

Color demands a response.

—Nat Jacobson

 

Color is colors,
plural.

—Joseph Albers

 

You can't teach calculus
to a cat.

—Marvin Minsky

 

I'd rather hear a thousand lies
than one truth.

—Jerome Lettvin

 

AMEX knows more about me
than my computer does.

—Walter Bender

 

There'll always be news, ergo
we'll always need editors.

—Walter Bender

 

On swinging a bat:
It's all in the hips.

—Walter Bender

 

Hear and forget; see and remember;
do and understand.

—Mitchel Resnick

 

It's hard to get
younger.

—Jerome Wiesner

 

Replace nothing soon—an anagram
for Nicholas Negroponte

—Walter Bender

 

The best thing about MIT
is the students.

—Walter Bender

 

The Internet is a mandate for a
"credability" industry.

—Walter Bender

 

The problem is...
middle management.

—Walter Bender

 

E-mail is
the killer app.

—Walter Bender

 

I want a pause button
for live TV.

—Walter Bender

 

License-plate-to-email conversion
is the future of road rage.

—Walter Bender

 

I need "Quicken"
for my closet.

—Walter Bender

 

The two hours we spend commuting
are the next big opportunity.

—Walter Bender

 

The wires write for everyone,
but not for "anyone".

—Walter Bender

 

Consciousness is
God's debugger.

—Bruce Blumberg

 

We all learn from experience;
preferably someone else's.

—Alan Kay

 

Reading is thinking
with someone else's brain.

—Alan Kay

 

Access isn't the problem;
it how to realize value.

—Walter Bender

 

Wearables mean your right hand
knows what your left is doing.

—Nicholas Negroponte

 

It is better to cannibalize
yourself, than be eaten.

—Nicholas Negroponte

 

The future is best seen
with peripheral vision.

—Nicholas Negroponte

 

Point of view is worth
40 IQ points.

—Alan Kay

 

Sports is the only excuse for
live TV.

—Walter Bender

 

The Media Lab works on the
non-essential ...its essential

—John Maeda

 

My car should tell my TV when
to watch for tire ads.

—Walter Bender

 

Emotion is our response to
violations of our expectations.

—Walter Bender

 

Photography is about frames;
cinematography is about scenes.

—Walter Bender

 

The problem isn't technology;
it's the people who use it.

—Walter Bender

 

The Media Lab is most valuable
as a place to make mistakes.

—Walter Bender

 

JAVA's not about OS independence;
rather data with sense of itself.

—Walter Bender

 

The network is the computer.

—Will Glesnes

 

You can't
monopolize creativity.

—Walter Bender

 

You can only reuse
software you understand.

—Anonymous

 

Things that think don't
obviate people that think.

—Walter Bender

 

and some more recent memes...

Be positive
and as vague as possible.

—William J. Mitchell

 

The Media Lab is
too narrow.

—William J. Mitchell

 

I know how to solve
all of their problems.

—Neil Gershenfeld