2093: Reminders

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 15:17, 2 January 2019 by Asdf (talk | contribs) (Transcript)
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Reminders
The good news is that if the number of work and friend relationships you have exceeds your willingness to do the bare minimum to keep up with everyone's life events and stuff, one way or another that problem eventually solves itself.
Title text: The good news is that if the number of work and friend relationships you have exceeds your willingness to do the bare minimum to keep up with everyone's life events and stuff, one way or another that problem eventually solves itself.

Explanation

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Transcript

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[Cueball using a laptop]
Laptop: You got this email six days ago. Do you want to follow up?
Cueball: Oh, right, I should do that.
*type type*
Laptop: Did you forget the attachment?
Cueball: Oops, yes.
Laptop: Today is the recipient's birthday. Did you want to mention that?
Cueball: Wait, it is?
[Caption below the panel:]
These reminders make me uncomfortable, not because computers are getting too smart, but because it reminds me how often I fall short of even baseline levels of conscientiousness.


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Discussion

I added an explanation in which I extended Cueball's reaction from the reminders to Randall himself - I believe this is commonly done for many comics, but please feel free to modify it. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 17:25, 2 January 2019 (UTC)

Relevant SMBC: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/gmail 162.158.63.214 13:33, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

I liked the rewrite of my original explanation but made a few additional changes. I re-added the intro about Cueball using an email client program, and I slightly modified the title text explanation - I don't think it's suggesting you'll end up friendless and alone, just with a level of friends that you can keep up with or who are willing to accept your lack of attention to the details of their lives. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 14:08, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Yeah, sorry, I kind of stomped all over your original write-up :) I felt it read a bit too much like the transcript and needed more explanation than description. I agree with your updates. Hawthorn (talk) 16:54, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
No problem - it was just a starting point. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 19:31, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

Is there a real email client capable of all three of these types of reminders? 141.101.107.96 23:02, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

The default program of the xkcd phone can do this 173.245.52.139 21:09, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
Probably not the first one, but if not, there probably will be now! ;-) Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 04:51, 4 January 2019 (UTC)
Gmail definitely can remind you to answer an email (I don't know what exactly triggers this, I have a lot of unanswered emails I do not get reminders about, but I definitely got such reminders in a few cases), and it also warns you about missing attachments. I don't know about birthday reminders, as I didn't tell Google about the birthdays of my contacts. --162.158.93.27 09:57, 4 January 2019 (UTC)

Hah! Funnily at first I mistakenly read “conscientiousness” as “consciousness”; then on second thoughts... :o