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 idea that Bill Gates (one of the founders of Microsoft) has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he, by peddling second rate technology, led them into it in the first place...
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques Bill Gates for being seen as a savior in technology while ignoring his role in creating the initial chaos.
Douglas Adams highlights the irony in viewing Bill Gates as a heroic figure rescuing consumers from technological confusion. He argues that Gates is partially responsible for the chaos they find themselves in due to the inferior technology he promoted, suggesting a paradox in the narrative of technological leadership and progress.
Themes
TechnologyBill GatesCritiqueInnovationChaos
In practice
Example use cases
In a technology seminar discussing the impacts of tech leaders, this quote can illustrate the complexity of innovation.
More from Douglas Adams
All quotes →"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "Ask a glass of water."
Douglas AdamsRead
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.
Douglas AdamsRead
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.
Douglas AdamsRead
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.
Douglas AdamsRead
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.
Douglas AdamsRead
Similar quotes
Without sounding too cliché, the Internet really is the birth of some kind of global mind.
Terence MckennaRead
Increasingly, our decisions will be made by the algorithms that surround us. Whenever there is a big dilemma, you just ask Google what to do. And what kind of life is that?
Yuval Noah HarariRead
The Internet in the 21st Century is as important to our future as highways were in the 20th Century. Like a highway, the Internet must remain free and open for all - not determined by the highest bidders.
Chuck SchumerRead
The greatest single programming language ever designed
Alan KayRead
I don't condone anyone causing damage in my name, or doing anything malicious in support of my plight. There are more productive ways to help me. As a hacker myself, I never intentionally damaged anything.
Kevin MitnickRead
Connectivity enables transparency for better government, education, and health.
Bill GatesRead