My nature and my training would not allow me to support something I didn’t believe in. I simply went against my manager’s instruction and set out to design a better system.

George Laurer, IBM engineer, said about how he defied his manager’s instructions to make the universal barcode nearly 40 years ago. Laurer didn’t expect his 12-digit, 30 black bars barcode design to have the longevity it did, still being used today about 6 billion times per day. George Laurer passed away on Dec. 5, at the age of 94. (NPR — December 12, 2019)