“Most of my colleagues go on backpacking trips when they have to do some thinking. I go to a good hardware store and head for the oiliest, dustiest corners. … If they're really good, they don't hassle me. They let me wander around and think. Young hardware clerks have a lot of hubris. They think they can help you find anything…. Old hardware clerks have learned the hard way that nothing in a hardware store ever gets bought for its nominal purpose. You buy something that was designed to do one thing, and you use it for another.”

— Neal Stephenson , book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 8

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Neal Stephenson 167

American science fiction writer 1959

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