“The hard work of the future will be pushing buttons.”
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Attribution note
Not on Wikiquote's sourced, disputed, or misattributed lists. Checked the Liberty (Feb 9, 1935) 'A Machine to End War' transcript on Tesla Universe: no 'pushing buttons' line. Only Goodreads/minimalistquotes-type aggregators carry it, with no citation anywhere.
Likely origin: No known primary source. Absent from Tesla's published writings and interviews, including the 1935 Liberty interview 'A Machine to End War' and English Wikiquote; circulates only on quote aggregators.
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Is a blunt reminder that success will belong to the people who learn the tools and use them with discipline. Stop romanticizing struggle and start practicing the small technical skills that make a difference. Which button will you learn to press today so you stop falling behind tomorrow?
When to use it
- A manager tells a lagging team: 'The hard work of the future will be pushing buttons' — then schedules hands-on training for the new system.
- A student deciding between theory and practice hears the line and starts building small projects to learn real tools, not just read about them.
- A technician uses the quote as a reality check: stop blaming complexity, practice the control routines every day until they become second nature.
- An entrepreneur shares the line at a meeting and follows with a plan: invest time in mastering one critical piece of software this month.