Editing 1545: Strengths and Weaknesses

{{comic
| number    = 1545
| date      = July 1, 2015
| title     = Strengths and Weaknesses
| image     = strengths_and_weaknesses.png
| titletext = Do you need me to do a quicksort on the whiteboard or produce a generation of offspring or something? It might take me a bit, but I can do it.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] is in a job interview and is being asked stereotypical job interview questions by [[Ponytail]], "What is your greatest weakness?", "What is your greatest strength?" and "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

In a roundabout way, Cueball answers that he is a living organism, and as such he has inherent flaws which could cause him to die. This is a reference to the fact that biological systems are "messy" and are not always optimal in design or operation.  For example, cancer is a disease where the cellular machinery that governs cell replications breaks down and prolific cell division happens, endangering the organism through the creation of tumors. While this is a true weakness, it is also a weakness of all biological organisms and is not likely to help the interviewer determine if he is qualified for the job. However, it is likely to help the interviewer determine if he is right for the job — because the interviewer is likely to presume that a person who gives silly and unhelpful answers is not right for most positions.

For the second question Cueball answers that he will one day be the ancestor to all living humans or none of them. As you go farther and farther into the future the ratio of people alive will either go to 0% or 100% of the descendants of the character. The {{w|Most recent common ancestor|most recent common ancestor (MRCA)}} for humans is unknown but occurred some time after {{w|Mitochondrial Eve}}, around 140,000 years ago. If the MRCA's ancestors are traced back, the {{w|Identical Ancestors Point}} can be found, at which point the entire population are either ancestors of all living humans or of no living humans.

In the last frame, for Cueball to be the ancestor to all living humans within 5 years means that all the humans who are not his children or grandchildren (including Cueball himself), must have died in a near total extinction of the human race - his apparent optimism about the possibility of this occurring would therefore be worrisome.

The overarching joke is that, rather than answer Ponytail's questions with answers relevant to the job she's interviewing him for, Cueball is answering her questions from an existential standpoint. He may be assuming that she wishes to assess his fitness as an organism from a genetic perspective (in which his biggest limitation is survival time and mortality), or he may simply be misinterpreting or deliberately avoiding her questions from a professional perspective.

The title text takes this further, equating producing offspring during an interview (which would be awkward for all involved) with something that may actually help assess a candidate's efficacy as an employee, namely writing out a sorting algorithm on the spot, another stereotypical interview question (see also [[1185: Ineffective Sorts]], especially the bottom left panel).

In [[1088: Five Years]], [[Beret Guy]] is also asked where he will be in five years, and he later interviews [[Hairy]] in [[1293: Job Interview]].

==Transcript==
:[Ponytail is shown sitting on a swivel chair, to the left of a desk.]
:Ponytail: What would you say is your biggest weakness?

:[The view expands to show Cueball sitting on another swivel chair, on the opposite side of the desk.]
:Cueball: Probably that I'm a giant tangle of parts that don't always work right, so I can die easily.

:Ponytail: Biggest strength?
:Cueball: There will come a day when I'm either an ancestor to ''all'' living humans, or to ''none'' of them.

:Ponytail: Where do you see yourself in five years?
:Cueball: Probably not the ancestor of all living humans yet. But you never know!

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Job interviews]]
[[Category:Programming]]