So clever it's stupid

[Phil Carmody <thefatphil_demunged@yahoo.co.uk>]

How do I turn off the utterly obnoxious behaviour of '<' in shell mode?
(Emacs v.21.4.1)

<<<
sh-maybe-here-document is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `sh-script'.
(sh-maybe-here-document ARG)

Insert self.  Without prefix, following unquoted `<' inserts here document.
The document is bounded by `sh-here-document-word'.
>>>

I give all my heredocs meaningful individual names, and certainly don't want 
emacs inanely thinking that I want all the terminators called 'EOF'.

It's so completely brain-dead that if I try to type a command like
  echo '<<< doing phase 2 >>>'
I don't get past the second chevron before it's shat unwanted garbage
in my file.

Similarly it doesn't seem to understand that people might want to use
both expanded and non-expanded heredocs, or sometimes want leading
tab removal, but at other times not want it. And as for herestrings,
they're right out.

Magic '<', for me, must die. How do I ensure I never ever see that
abomination again? (Unbind the key and make it self-insert in a 
bunch of relevant hooks? Or is there just a variable I can set to 
'off' somehow?)

Phil
-- 
The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the 
point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. 
The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
-- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Preface to Androcles and the Lion