Listen, three eyes," he said, "don't you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.
Douglas AdamsRead
You come to me for advice, but you can't cope with anything you don't recognize. Hmmm. So we'll have to tell you something you already know but make it sound like news, eh Well, business as usual , I suppose.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the challenge of accepting advice that contradicts our existing beliefs or knowledge.
Douglas Adams suggests that when people seek advice, they often struggle with concepts they aren't familiar with or don't recognize. Therefore, the advice provided must resonate with their prior knowledge, even if it's framed as new information. This reflects a human tendency to resist change and the importance of presenting familiar ideas in a way that feels accessible and relatable.
Themes
AdviceRecognitionKnowledgeChangeUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a self-help seminar to emphasize the importance of recognizing one's limitations.
More from Douglas Adams
All quotes →"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "Ask a glass of water."
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Protect me from knowing what I don't need to know. Protect me from even knowing that there are things to know that I don't know. Protect me from knowing that I decided not to know about the things that I decided not to know about. Amen. [...] Lord, lord, lord. Protect me from the consequences of the above prayer.
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Computers are still technology because we are still wrestling with it: it's still being invented; we're still trying to work out how it works. There's a world of game interaction to come that you or I wouldn't recognise. It's time for the machines to disappear. The computer's got to disappear into all of the things we use.
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What the computer in virtual reality enables us to do is to recalibrate ourselves so that we can start seeing those pieces of information that are invisible to us but have become important for us to understand.
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We are stuck with technology when all we really want is just stuff that works. How do you recognize something that is still technology? A good clue is if it comes with a manual.
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