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
The available worlds looked pretty grim. They had little to offer him because he had little to offer them. He had been extremely chastened to realize that although he originally came from a world which had cars and computers and ballet and Armagnac, he didn't, by himself, know how any of it worked. He couldn't do it. Left to his own devices he couldn't build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and that was it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the limitations of individual knowledge and capability despite living in a world rich with technology and culture.
Douglas Adams highlights the irony of our existence in a technologically advanced world while acknowledging personal inadequacies in understanding or creating these advancements. The quote suggests that we often take for granted the complexities of modern life, which rely on collective knowledge and cooperation rather than individual skills alone. It serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of society and the importance of learning from others.
Themes
KnowledgeIndividualityTechnologyLimitationsInterconnectedness
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on technology, this quote can foster a discussion on collaboration and the importance of various skills in achieving advancements.
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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