I understand that the dictator Joseph Stalin was quoted for saying this. Surprising since it really is a such a perceptive quote and he was such a mislead individual. The tyranny, death, and suffering he inflicted upon the people of the old U.S.S.R. is a testimony of the ruthlessness of ideological Communism.
Still, it is a fantastic quote as it cuts through the Quality vs Quantity dichotomy. I have believed that Quality and Quantity are two different characteristics, that they were not related, and having more of one usually meant having less of the other.
Yet when I think about it in relation to money it makes sense. A $1000 is a bigger quantity than $1. It is also a better quality in relation to what you can do with it. The quality is better because the quantity is more. The same could be said about other multiples such as food, houses, and soldiers (which I assume is what Stalin was referring to) . Quantity at some levels will change the perception of quality. We are starting to see this act itself out in the growing business segment of eCommerce which has taken this to new levels.
Chris Anderson’s article “Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business” in Wired Magazine explains that it can actually be profitable to give away products as Yahoo does with free unlimited web mail space. This is an opposite extrapolation of this meme as free or zero quantity has become the new quality in the world of business. In the mind of the customer, the quantity of $0.00 has a quality all of its own.
The world is a funny place. A deceased communist dictator helped define a new principle taking root in the world of business. Communists believe that wealth should be distributed to everyone freely. Ironically, the most recent evolution of internet based capitalism is actually granting this.
I had to comment on this one, even though it’s written about 3 years ago because you are completly wrong.You don’t know why he said that, probably because you didn’t learn history well. You are talking about economy and communism, but that quote is not about that. It is about war. He said that while his factories were making tanks for the WWII. By the 1939 USSR had 20,000 tanks, more then the rest of the world combined. German’s tanks, especially Tigers were technologicaly superior against Soviet’s T-34’s, but German tanks were largely outnumbered by Soviet tanks. And realising that Stalin said that quantity is quality. And he won the battle of Kursk, biggest tank battle in history, with quantity.
I always welcome a comment, no matter how old the post!
I knew that Stalin was talking about armies when he said his quote. My blog post takes his quote as a launching point into a different tangent – it is definitely out of the context. I have nothing to apologize for since my post is just saying that Stalin spoke a truth despite being a very twisted individual. The truth of what he said remains relevant in the digital age which makes is all the more fascinating.