Listen, three eyes," he said, "don't you try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.
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
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
Similar quotes
On the back of Satan's neck is a nail scarred footprint.
The notion that religion can actually be something... attached to progressivism seems so bizarre. But all you have to say is that Abolition wouldn't have happened without it. The way in which African Americans managed to achieve a degree of self-determination was through the church.
One of the great questions of philosophy is, do we innately have morality, or do we get it from celestial dictation? A study of the Ten Commandments is a very good way of getting into and resolving that issue.
Healthcare should be a human right and not a commodity for sale.
Suddenly, madness was everywhere, and I was determined to learn about the impact it had on the way society evolves. I've always believed society to be a fundamentally rational thing, but what if it isn't? What if it is built on insanity?
Je puis nier une chose sans me croire obligé de la salir ou de retirer aux autres le droit d'y croire.