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
It startled him even more when just after he was awarded the Galactic Institute's Prize for Extreme Cleverness he got lynched by a rampaging mob of respectable physicists who had finally realized that the one thing they really couldn't stand was a smart-ass.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the irony of intelligence being met with disdain, especially among peers.
In this quote, Douglas Adams humorously illustrates the contradictory nature of society's appreciation for intelligence. Although the protagonist is recognized for extreme cleverness, his peers, who are also respected physicists, become hostile towards him, preferring to eliminate what they view as arrogance rather than celebrate his achievement, thereby showcasing a comedic yet cynical take on the dangers of standing out in a community.
Themes
IntelligenceArroganceSocietyHumorConformity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used when discussing the challenges of innovation in a stifling environment.
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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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