1.) Circa 1948, there WAS only a world market for about 5 computers.

2.) This quote would only fit if your “Take it from these guys:” was intended seriously, instead of sarcastically. The speaker was emphasizing the same point as you.

3.) This is frequently brought up… but always the source is cited as a nameless engineer.
Firstly, entry-level techs at IBM still gain the title “engineer” in certain departments. Are you going to laugh at a company because a lower-level tech didn’t understand a groundbreaking technology?
Secondly, can you guarantee that this quote is indeed an honest quote, and not a fabrication? Countless quotes have later been proven to be complete fabrications meant to convince a target audience to side with the speaker/author. They also frequently share the trait of having a nameless underling as the source.
Thirdly, many presentations include, as an attention-grabbing technique, a challenge question such as this (What is it good for? This is what it’s good for!)… Taking this statement at face value without any context is inappropriate.

4.) Once again, circa 1977, there WASN’T a reason for an individual to own a computer in their home.

That being said, that’s because most tech books are how-to or into details, APIs, etc that change quickly with time. Other books the Dragon Compiler book for example, are much more timeless, as they tech concepts and ways of thinking that aren’t closely tied to the underlying implementation — these are the ones worth reading IMO.

Blogs and other web-based articles are just as good IMO. I subscribe to over a hundred blogs – I don’t read them all in depth obviously, but I scan for articles of interest.

I’ve got a book lined up for my holiday (off tomorrow) – Beautiful Architecture – and I’m learning jQuery, which has no direct relevance. Look through my ray-tracing articles – I doubt they’ll ever be of importance to my work – but I did all that for fun.

Having said that, my diatribes are mainly aimed at myself – I don’t do enough off-topic reading – that’s just my writing style, writing about myself, but as if to a third person.

(PS to all commenters – I won’t be able to approve comments for a week – please don’t assume you’ve been spam-blocked!)

When was the last time you read a technical blog post, article, or code documentation when it was of no immediate use to your job?