explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2410: Apple Growers

2021-01-12T12:01:50Z

141.101.107.82: What in modern American history doesn't resemble this?

I think this is the first strip to refer to Trump by name. Can anyone confirm that? [[User:Captain Video|Captain Video]] ([[User talk:Captain Video|talk]]) 05:32, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

: Negatory. [[2137: Text Entry]] is one I remember. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.63.173|172.69.63.173]] 06:00, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
::The earliest I'm aware of is [[980: Money]] from 2011 (so before he'd held elective office). It's almost unfindable in the giant image. Trump is mentioned in the lower right corner of the "Billionaires" box, inside the very large "Billions" section. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.64|108.162.237.64]] 06:12, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
::: And, of course, [[2383: Electoral Precedent 2020]].
:I was sufficiently interested in this question to actually look it up with the search function. Turns out the transcripts are actually useful for something!
:*[[980: Money]] is the only one from before Trump was elected President
:*[[1836: Okeanos]] (mentioned as "Trump" only) is the first after the election - May 12, 2017, nearly six months after it
:*[[1939: 2016 Election Map]] ("Trump" only)
:*[[2126: Google Trends Maps]]
:*[[2137: Text Entry]]
:*[[2220: Imagine Going Back in Time]] ("Trump" only)
:*[[2383: Electoral Precedent 2020]] ("Trump" only)
:*[[2399: 2020 Election Map]] ("Trump" only)
:As far as I can tell, these are the only nine comics (inclusive of this one) that use the name "Trump", and there are only four occurrences of "Donald Trump", including this. So it's not unknown, but Randall does seem to be avoiding it. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.238|108.162.237.238]] 06:56, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Is it really a good idea to take the lack of masks on the spokesfolks as evidence of their mental state? It seems to me that Randall often draws characters without masks when they're not directly topical, even in these days of Covid precautions, and the reporters aren't wearing masks either. It's unlikely that either group is made up entirely of family members who share the same residence [citation needed], so I would count it more likely that they can all be assumed to be masked in the same way that they can be assumed to have eyes and mouths despite lack of any visual indicators of such. --[[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.216|108.162.245.216]] 07:48, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
:Do remember that they also has no close on, so unless the masks are important for the topic, then you can assume they have masks just as you can assume they have clothe on. (Or if you like, you can assume Megan and Ponytail doesn't, as I always do :-p ) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:04, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
::Specifically they don't have faces so... rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.42|162.158.155.42]] 10:46, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the state is Washington. Washington's pretty well known for apples, and the Cosmic Crisp variety mentioned in the title text was developed by researchers at Washington State University. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.245.40|108.162.245.40]] 08:00, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

According to a quick Wikipedia search, the title text's "we have SO MUCH to say" could be a reference to the fact that promotion for cosmic crisp was apparently the largest campaign in apple industry history. If anyone has the time to check and confirm that, we should add it to the explanation. [[User:Bischoff|Bischoff]] ([[User talk:Bischoff|talk]]) 08:05, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
:Right now, "Pink Lady" is splurging an ad (basically a 'facetime filter'-type graphics enhanced thing) over here in the UK. Though the classic from my youth was the ¿Golden Delicious? brand doing a Bugsy Mallone-spoof ("le Crunch Bunch"). But I don't follow apple brands (there's a cooking-apple tree in a garden, that I pick from, been there 40-50 years - but now no idea what cultivar it is, etc) and I'm not particularly exposed to US news on apples, only its politics. Just so you know. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.155.138|162.158.155.138]] 08:36, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Does anybody agree that "Uh, apples are great. Best fruit. Everyone should buy 1,000 of them" is a reference to Trump-style way of talking in speeches? [[User:Reisbein|Reisbein]] ([[User talk:Reisbein|talk]]) 08:31, 12 January 2021 (UTC)
:Yes already added this to the explanation. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:04, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

May I question that "Nothing in modern American history resembles this"? Possibly nothing in the national Capitol's modern history resembles this precisely, but the Capitol in Michigan was invaded last May, Tennessee had an incident of this kind in 2001 while trying to debate state income tax, and there was that thing at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, in Oregon. And there was Black rioting in Washington and in most other places and machine guns at the Capitol when Dr Martin Luther King was murdered, does that count as modern? And President Reagan was shot in Washington. Presidents and the White House are shot at all the time. The President's personal militia attacking other branches of the government is less usual, or is it? Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 12:01, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Talk:2375: Worst Ladder

2020-10-22T01:55:04Z

141.101.107.82:

Their ladder is obviously placed somewhere where they all have to walk under it to get into the boardroom. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.247|162.158.158.247]] 00:59, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

I find it extremely pleasing that within 20 minutes the XKCD itself in on the front page of Google results [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.4|108.162.237.4]] 01:09, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Google searches gonna be skyrocketing for "Worst Ladder".

Can someone create a category for "business"-related comics? There are quite a few (some related to Beret Guy's businesses, but others just general). [[Special:Contributions/172.69.33.37|172.69.33.37]] 01:31, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Can someone confirm if this comic is related to Quibi's shutdown announcement? Because if it isn't, then it's one major coincidence. [[User:Aderon|Aderon]] ([[User talk:Aderon|talk]]) 01:50, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

I thought someone had added a practical screenshot of Google's "worst ladder" search, before realising it was one of the inline Google-powered ads, this one 'aptly' for a certain popular online auction site which illustrated various ladders apparently up for sale upon its platform.... [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 01:55, 22 October 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2373: Chemist Eggs

2020-10-17T01:03:57Z

141.101.107.82:

Chemists get another solid pummeling from xkcd dot com. Also, double question marks, very Ryan North. [[User:Lightcaller|Lightcaller]] ([[User talk:Lightcaller|talk]]) 00:41, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

You could disguise the smell of your rotten eggs with [https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2012/05/15/things_i_wont_work_with_selenophenol selenophenol] and [https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2009/06/11/things_i_wont_work_with_thioacetone thioacetones]. Nobody will complain about your mere sulphides then... (ETA: I wonder about selenoacetones?)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.167|162.158.154.167]] 00:53, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Seperately, I recall the time when I was still at school and we'd made some compound that had produced the distinct smell of almonds. Mentioning this later to my father (a chemist himself) he was initially quite concerned before I clarified whatever-it-was as whatever it actually was and not an actual cyanogen compound. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 01:03, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2370: Prediction

2020-10-10T00:26:00Z

141.101.107.82: I messed up the copying.

Is that a JoJo's reference?!1!! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.213|172.68.142.213]] 23:18, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
: Dunno who or what JoJo is (unless Jojo Siwa? But how would that be relevant?), but this is at least 70% likely to be a reference to the current election season in the USA and 538's (and others') predictions of Donald Trump's chance of winning the election in 2016 and 2020. In 2016, if I recall correctly, Trump had about a 30% chance to win (and thus Clinton had a 70% chance to win), and when 538's model launched earlier this year, the chances were basically the same (28-71 (with a 1% of an electoral college split because the USA's election system is phenomenally stupid)). Since then, Trump's chances of winning legitimately (538 does not attempt to model the chances and effects of election interference or votes not being counted) have slipped to about a 15% chance of winning which sounds bad, but will still happen in approximately 1 of every 7 tries, or about the number of Mondays in a week. Not great, but not impossible, either....)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.194|162.158.75.194]] 23:36, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

::Now, let's talk about another misconception: lot of people intuitively think that an if event has chance of 1/7, it will almost surely happen at least once in seven tries. In reality, that chance is just 66%. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:17, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't know of Randall's got a series of White Hat comics sitting ready (the last one being [[2368]]) but he didn't want it to look like a 'series' so padded with something else. If we've got another such dialogue before the end of next week, it may be a sign he's recently had a particularly bad conversation/message-session with someone and just wanted to vent a bit. And I wouldn't blame him, if that's so. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 00:24, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
:(PS, pre-post edit, but not for the want of trying: CAPTCHA wanted me to identify tractors. Two obvious tractors, no tractors on ''any'' of the other tiles (definitely) but one of them had a road-roller. Refused to accept the two tractors only, and I'm refusing to support the presumably incorrect Id of the roller, so come back to edit this in, do my own venting, and perhaps I'll get a better CAPTCHA when I retry in a moment... (Thanks to an Edit Conflict after I was finished fighting the Captcha I'm able to come back to tell you that the next one was Stairs, and I aced that one! But gotta suffer at least one more, yet...)) Also [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 00:24, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2370: Prediction

2020-10-10T00:24:06Z

141.101.107.82:

Is that a JoJo's reference?!1!! [[Special:Contributions/172.68.142.213|172.68.142.213]] 23:18, 9 October 2020 (UTC)
: Dunno who or what JoJo is (unless Jojo Siwa? But how would that be relevant?), but this is at least 70% likely to be a reference to the current election season in the USA and 538's (and others') predictions of Donald Trump's chance of winning the election in 2016 and 2020. In 2016, if I recall correctly, Trump had about a 30% chance to win (and thus Clinton had a 70% chance to win), and when 538's model launched earlier this year, the chances were basically the same (28-71 (with a 1% of an electoral college split because the USA's election system is phenomenally stupid)). Since then, Trump's chances of winning legitimately (538 does not attempt to model the chances and effects of election interference or votes not being counted) have slipped to about a 15% chance of winning which sounds bad, but will still happen in approximately 1 of every 7 tries, or about the number of Mondays in a week. Not great, but not impossible, either....)[[Special:Contributions/162.158.75.194|162.158.75.194]] 23:36, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

::Now, let's talk about another misconception: lot of people intuitively think that an if event has chance of 1/7, it will almost surely happen at least once in seven tries. In reality, that chance is just 66%. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:17, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

I don't know of Randall's got a series of White Hat comics sitting ready (the last one being [[2368]]) but he didn't want it to look like a 'series' so padded with something else. If we've got another such dialogue before the end of next week, it may be a sign he's recently had a particularly bad conversation/message-session with someone and just wanted to vent a bit. And I wouldn't blame him, if that's so. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 00:24, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
+
::Now, let's talk about another misconception: lot of people intuitively think that an if event has chance of 1/7, it will almost surely happen at least once in seven tries. In reality, that chance is just 66%. -- [[User:Hkmaly|Hkmaly]] ([[User talk:Hkmaly|talk]]) 00:17, 10 October 2020 (UTC)
−
:(PS, pre-post edit, but not for the want of trying: CAPTCHA wanted me to identify tractors. Two obvious tractors, no tractors on ''any'' of the other tiles (definitely) but one of them had a road-roller. Refused to accept the two tractors only, and I'm refusing to support the presumably incorrect Id of the roller, so come back to edit this in, do my own venting, and perhaps I'll get a better CAPTCHA when I retry in a moment... (Thanks to an Edit Conflict after I was finished fighting the Captcha I'm able to come back to tell you that the next one was Stairs, and I aced that one! But gotta suffer at least one more, yet...)) Also [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 00:24, 10 October 2020 (UTC)

Talk:2368: Bigger Problem

2020-10-06T19:45:21Z

141.101.107.82:

I have a saying that's kinda related: Someone else's broken arm does not make my broken wrist less painful. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.255.56|162.158.255.56]] 17:46, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

I feel like this could have been blackhat instead of whitehat [[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.194|108.162.229.194]] 18:27, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
:Nah, Whitehat's been used before as the guy who keeps introducing stupid or strawman arguments - like 1314:Photos
:No, it being White Hat is important. White Hat at least deludes himself that he's doing what's right. Black Hat knows full well he's a troll and doesn't pretend otherwise. The point of this comic is that this diminishment of problems is a means to make yourself feel more comfortable with your own inaction. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.206.14|172.68.206.14]] 19:57, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
:would it have mattered? [[User:Donthaveusername|Donthaveusername]] ([[User talk:Donthaveusername|talk]]) 21:52, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
::("would it ''have'' mattered?", or "it've" if you wish. Please consider this a problem I feel is worth trying to solve, though I know I never will succeed.) White Hat has prior form in what could easily be the exact same discussion. See [[1232]]. Assuming that NASA started to employ {{wiktionary|chugger}}s to get their funding, that is. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.158.247|162.158.158.247]] 22:55, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
:::I corrected my grammar, thanks [[User:Donthaveusername|Donthaveusername]] ([[User talk:Donthaveusername|talk]]) 17:56, 6 October 2020 (UTC) 
This doesn't just apply to big problems in the world. As a software developer, we often have to fix a small problem, and then someone will inevitably try to expand this into solving big problem, of which this is just one symptom. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 22:08, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

I think a paragraph should be added warning against this fallacy in real life - a call to action of sorts to encourage people not to worry about whether there's a bigger problem, but to tackle some sort of problem in their lives they feel is manageable. Would this be out of place? [[Special:Contributions/172.69.23.25|172.69.23.25]] 22:26, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
:I agree, and have added such a note. [[User:BunsenH|BunsenH]] ([[User talk:BunsenH|talk]]) 22:49, 5 October 2020 (UTC)s

This reminds me of the [https://pics.onsizzle.com/apple-airpods-cost-159-but-they-cant-pay-taxes-or-3795036.png famous Matt Bors comic] after which his new book is named. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.133.36|172.68.133.36]] 05:39, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Is this kind of like as a social conservative, I care about euthanasia, war, abortion, and the death penalty and want them all reduced, but I also care about doing what I can about climate change even if I am skeptical that human beings can do anything to reverse climate change at this point, and so I drive a 2006 prius with all sorts of pro-life bumper stickers and am planning on, when I change out the battery at 300,000 miles, to add a 3rd party plug in charger reducing my once-every-three-months gas tank fill up to once a year?[[User:Seebert|Seebert]] ([[User talk:Seebert|talk]]) 15:31, 6 October 2020 (UTC)
:Perhaps see if you can get your old batteries (maybe paired up with someone else's, to deal with the capacity bleed that forced you to replace them) and put them in a Home Storage Unit that you can feed with excess renewable energy (your own, or off the grid at anti-peak times) and this balance of energy then becomes as much as possible of the home-charging power given to your PIH car. This solves some of the problems caused by the attempt to use certain Green Revolution solutions (the need to recycle/(re)manufacture batteries, the energy load now not taken by tanks of hydrocarbons now needing to come off the domestic electricity supplies, etc). There's plenty of knock-on effects to consider. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.107.82|141.101.107.82]] 19:45, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

This comic depends on what RationalWiki calls the [https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_as_bad_as "Not as bad as" fallacy], which apparently has the fancier name "Fallacy of Relative Privation." [[Special:Contributions/108.162.237.36|108.162.237.36]] 18:35, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

2368: Bigger Problem

2020-10-06T10:40:42Z

141.101.107.82: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 2368
| date = October 5, 2020
| title = Bigger Problem
| image = bigger_problem.png
| titletext = Your point that the world contains multiple problems is a real slam-dunk argument against fixing any of them.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a <SOLUTION>. Please mention here why this world still has problems. Do NOT give up hope too soon.}}

[[Cueball]] is asking [[White Hat]] to help fix an unspecified problem with the world. Presumably, he is working for some form of charity, and perhaps asking for donations or signatures. White Hat responds by saying that Cueball doesn't care about the issue, and that he would be working to fix an unspecified larger issue if he ''really'' cared. Cueball then asks if White Hat would rather be working to solve that problem. However, White Hat says that he doesn't want to, but that he also hasn't come up with an excuse not to yet. White Hat seems as if he couldn't be bothered, and wants to go on with his life.

The claim that someone is not working towards an important issue, [https://what-if.xkcd.com/imgs/a/146/dontcare.png while not always completely invalid], is commonly used as a cheap tactic to ignore a solution to a problem, even when the person using it does want to help out with either cause. In the last panel of this comic, White Hat reveals that he isn't sufficiently devoted to either cause to act on them, so that his bringing up the larger issue appears less like interest in the larger issue than an excuse to not support Cueball's cause.

The title text furthers this point. While the argument used by White Hat is supposed to imply that the person giving the argument cares about an issue that matters more (to the exclusion of the other issue), it's often used, as seen in this comic, as an excuse to not work to fix any problem, making it "a real slam-dunk argument against fixing any of them."

Both causes in the comic are referred to ambiguously and surrounded with angle brackets to imply that they can be filled it with any two problems, as the comic is supposed to depict a common situation that happens during discussions of many different causes.

This comic is quite similar to [[871: Charity]] because both have a character that responds to people trying to help "by figuring out a reason that they're not really as good as they seem".

People sometimes use similar fallacious reasoning against ''themselves,'' thinking that they shouldn't tackle "simple" "unimportant" problems when there are "important" problems outstanding, even if the former are within their ability to handle but the latter aren't. This can be a form of self-sabotaging behavior.

In essence, this may be an example of the principle - "The perfect is the enemy of the of the good." That is, it is better to make to make a small advance which does some good. If you insist on doing nothing until you cure everything to perfection, nothing will be done.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball, holding a clipboard next to his body in his left hand, holds his right hand palm up towards White Hat.]
:Cueball: I'm trying to fix <problem with the world>. Can you help?

:[Cueball stands with both arms down while white Hat lift one hand up toward Cueball.]
:White Hat: It's obvious you don't actually care. If you did, you'd be trying to fix <bigger problem> instead.

:[Same setting as the first picture, wit Cueball's hand a bit further out towards White Hat.]
:Cueball: Okay, want to help fix <bigger problem>?
:White Hat: No, for another reason I'll think of later.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring White Hat]]