"Bigger is always better"
About this Quote
"Bigger is always better" is the kind of line that sounds like a dumb jock slogan until you remember who’s saying it: Adam Savage, the patron saint of gleeful overengineering. Coming from an entertainer-builder who made a career out of turning curiosity into spectacle, the phrase isn’t a philosophy so much as a production note. It’s about what reads on camera, what creates stakes, what makes an idea feel physical enough to matter.
Savage’s intent is less about literal size than about commitment. In the MythBusters universe, a small test can be clever, but a big build becomes a story: the whir of motors, the anxious distance behind safety glass, the payoff of an explosion or a clean proof. "Always" is the wink. He knows it’s not a law of engineering; it’s a rule of showmanship and, more generously, a permission slip to indulge the maximalist joy of making.
The subtext is a gentle rebellion against the miniaturized, frictionless modern life where everything is optimized, compressed, and hidden behind screens. Bigger means visible process. It means failure is loud enough to learn from. It means the audience can track the logic with their bodies, not just their brains.
Context matters: Savage rose with maker culture before it had corporate branding, when building something ridiculous in a garage felt like a counterweight to passive consumption. The line flatters our inner 12-year-old, but it also argues that wonder isn’t an accident. You scale the thing up until it can’t be ignored.
Savage’s intent is less about literal size than about commitment. In the MythBusters universe, a small test can be clever, but a big build becomes a story: the whir of motors, the anxious distance behind safety glass, the payoff of an explosion or a clean proof. "Always" is the wink. He knows it’s not a law of engineering; it’s a rule of showmanship and, more generously, a permission slip to indulge the maximalist joy of making.
The subtext is a gentle rebellion against the miniaturized, frictionless modern life where everything is optimized, compressed, and hidden behind screens. Bigger means visible process. It means failure is loud enough to learn from. It means the audience can track the logic with their bodies, not just their brains.
Context matters: Savage rose with maker culture before it had corporate branding, when building something ridiculous in a garage felt like a counterweight to passive consumption. The line flatters our inner 12-year-old, but it also argues that wonder isn’t an accident. You scale the thing up until it can’t be ignored.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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