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
Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life is unpredictable, and it's better to stay engaged than to dwell on uncertainties.
In this quote, Douglas Adams expresses a sense of resignation toward the complexities of life and the futility of trying to completely understand it. He advocates for focusing on being occupied and engaged with life rather than getting caught up in the absurdity of seeking absolute clarity about 'what really is going on.' This reflects a philosophical approach to accepting uncertainty and finding meaning through action rather than analysis.
Themes
AbsurdityLifeEngagementUncertaintyPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about embracing the chaos of life.
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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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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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