Editing 447: Too Old For This Shit

{{comic
| number    = 447
| date      = July 9, 2008
| title     = Too Old For This Shit
| image     = too_old_for_this_shit.png
| titletext = They say if a mathematician doesn't do their great work by age eleven, they never will.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic makes fun of the fact that most mathematical geniuses have done their exceptional work (for which they eventually become famous) in their early years by exaggerating it, particularly given that "too old for this shit" is a phrase more appropriately used by people later in age. At the age of thirteen, most precocious mathematicians would not be pushing the frontier of mathematical knowledge, let alone to the point where they would be "too old for it." As such, this is more of a joke about a young boy attempting to dismiss the world around him. It also plays on the fact that in xkcd comics, it is often difficult to tell age because of a lack of detail, which is necessary to set up the final punchline.

A striking example is {{w|Carl Friedrich Gauss}}, the famous mathematician, who wrote his exceptional masterpiece ''{{w|Disquisitiones Arithmeticae}}'' at the early age of 21. This idea was for instance used in the fictional biography of Gauss, ''{{w|Measuring the World}}'', where he admits to having trouble understanding his own work when he got older because of his age. 

The "age theory'" applies to physics as well. {{w|Albert Einstein}} was also very young (26) when he published his {{w|Annus Mirabilis papers|four groundbreaking papers}} in the same year (his {{w|Annus Mirabilis}} in 1905) including the one that eventually gave him the {{w|Nobel Prize}}. Later in life, for instance, he never accepted the theory of {{w|quantum physics}} - which is now a very well-established theory.

The title of the comic, "Too Old For This Shit", is also likely a reference to the ''{{w|Lethal Weapon}}'' series, in which one of the main characters (Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover) is repeatedly quoted as saying things along the line of "I'm too old for this shit."

The title text asserts that thirteen is way too old as it claims that mathematicians should do their '''great work''' at the age of eleven! If not - they will never do anything great.

==Transcript==
:[Two Cueballs are standing in front of a whiteboard covered with equations. They are facing away from each other, not yet fully conversing with each other.]
:Cueball 1: I wish I could do math like when I was young.
:Cueball 2: Huh?

:[The two now face each other. They talk to each other.]
:Cueball 1: It doesn't come easy like it once did.
:Cueball 2: Uh huh.

:[Still talking.]
:Cueball 1: Math is a game for the young. I need to sit back and let the future happen.

:[Still talking.]
:Cueball 2: You're thirteen.
:Cueball 1: Yes, and it's time I accept that.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Math]]