Adams, Douglas -- Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 4 (1988)

Dave — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 16:02:05 +0000

He had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his “Zen” method of navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it. The results were more often surprising than successful, but he felt it was worth it for the sake of the few occasions when it was both.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 4 (1988)
(Source)

Dirk describes this again later, in ch. 13:

My own strategy is to find a car, or the nearest equivalent, which looks as if it knows where it's going and follow it. I rarely end up where I was intending to go, but often I end up somewhere I needed to be.

And again at the end of ch. 13:

My methods of navigation have their advantage. I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

WIST Quotations

Adams, Douglas -- Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 4 (1988)