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 only thing nicer than a phone that didn't ring all the time (or indeed at all) was six phones that didn't ring all the time (or indeed at all).
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously suggests that silence and lack of interruptions are preferable to even multiple phones that are also silent.
Douglas Adams uses this quote to playfully highlight the irony of modern communication devices that often create more noise and disturbance than they provide convenience. The remark suggests that true peace comes from moments of silence and lesser distractions, even poking fun at the idea that having more devices doesn't necessarily enhance one’s quality of life.
Themes
SilencePhonesDistractionHumorCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on technology's impact, one might use this quote to emphasize the value of taking breaks from devices.
More from Douglas Adams
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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