Science Quote by Thomas J. Watson

Corporate optimism is cheap; dissent is expensive. Watson’s line is an early, plainspoken diagnosis of a problem every large organization eventually manufactures: a feedback system that rewards reassurance and punishes friction. “You don’t hear things that are bad… unless you ask” isn’t just advice about communication hygiene. It’s a warning that silence is often engineered, not accidental. People learn fast what gets them praised, promoted, or simply left alone. Good news travels on autopilot because it flatters power and confirms the story leadership already wants to tell.

The second sentence does the real work. “Scratch” is an oddly physical verb, suggesting discomfort, persistence, even a willingness to irritate. Bad news doesn’t present itself politely; it has to be excavated from layers of politeness, fear, and self-censorship. The subtext is that management’s job isn’t to broadcast vision; it’s to create conditions where inconvenient truth can survive long enough to be heard. That means asking the question in a way that doesn’t punish the answer.

Context matters: Watson built IBM in an era when “the company” was closer to a social institution than a brand, with deep hierarchies and deference baked in. In that setting, the “good tidings” are not merely upbeat updates; they’re protective rituals. Watson’s intent is pragmatic, almost scientific: treat bad news as data that requires active collection. If you wait for it to arrive, it won’t. If you don’t scratch, you don’t deserve to know.