Once the automobile appeared you could have predicted that it would destroy as many people as it did.
Interpretation
The invention of the automobile brought both progress and harm to society.
Ray Bradbury's quote reflects the dual nature of technological advancements, particularly the automobile, which has undeniably changed the world for the better but also brought about significant loss of life and negative consequences. It suggests that with great innovation comes great responsibility and awareness of potential dangers.
In practice
In a discussion about the impact of transportation on society, this quote could highlight the unforeseen consequences of innovation.
I've written about 2,000 short stories; I've only published 300 and I feel I'm still learning. Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he'll eventually make some kind of career for himself as a writer. Ray Bradbury, 1967 interview (Doing the Math - that means for every story he sold, he wrote six "un-publishable" ones. Keep typing!)
I never went to college, so I went to the library.
There must be something in books, something we canβt imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house; there must be something there. You donβt stay for nothing.
I think the sun is a flower, That blooms for just one hour.
The first thing a writer should be is - excited. He should be a thing of fevers and enthusiasms. Without such vigor, he might as well be out picking peaches or digging ditches; God knows it'd be better for his health.
You can't try to do things; you simply must do them.
Now it's easy for someone to set up a storefront and reach the entire world in very modest ways. So these technologies that we thought would dis-intermediate traditional sellers gave more people the tools to be sellers. It also changed the balance of power between sellers and buyers.
Believing we know what makes prosperity work, ignoring the nature of the actual prosperity all around, we change the rules within which the Internet revolution lives. These changes will end the revolution.
Technology to wipe out truth is now available. Not everybody can afford it but it's available. When the cost comes down, look out!
The fundamental truth for developers is they will build if there are users.
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.
C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.