Talk:1364: Like I'm Five

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 05:26, 9 May 2014 by Langusto (talk | contribs) (ELI5 is _old_, not a result of this comic)
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I bet this comic was at least partly inspired by Randall's writing for this week's what-if, in which he's answering a question posed by a 4 1/2 year old, and does indeed seem to be attempting to explain to someone of that age.199.27.128.186 04:39, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

Almost certainly a reference to this. 108.162.219.44 05:58, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

I actually do something like this, though I never heard of the Reddit thing or the above page. 108.162.237.218 06:46, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

The alt text leads into me imagining them both "being" 5 and start arguing in a very childish way. I think that's a part of the alt joke. 108.162.219.39 08:59, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

I read it as a pun on "parens". As in the equations being so complicated it's hard to tell which parentheses belong together. 141.101.88.211 12:04, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

But those parentheses are only in your mind. The thesis could very well be about Psychology or Latin. 173.245.50.84 14:24, 5 May 2014 (UTC)
Well, Megan is "doing tons of maths for (her) thesis", so 141.101.88.211's idea can be right. 173.245.49.64 07:24, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

I did remove this statement: "possibly originating from an episode of Psych)". Maybe someone can give a better prove; the explain still needs some enhancements. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:31, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Does this remind anyone else of 547? Except that xkcd argued the opposite (that simplified explanations are beneficial). I'd assume that this means there is a happy middle ground between offering simple, accessible explanations and dumbing things down to the level needed for a 5 year old to understand. S (talk) 23:02, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

The reddit thread has high traffic *after* this xkcd comic? The xkcd comic is *based* on reddit's ELI5 (Explain like I'm 5) subreddit, which has been around for ages! Langusto (talk) 05:35, 6 May 2014 (UTC)

So please show me the traffic before this comic. Is there any link to the initial post? I can't find. --Dgbrt (talk) 19:29, 6 May 2014 (UTC)
The traffic before this comic can be seen using ELI5's "next" button, or for example search for "heartbleed". There are loads of threads with huge traffic from the last two years. That's what this xkcd comic is about. I don't know what the "initial post" was, but this is a subreddit, not a forum thread. Langusto (talk) 05:26, 9 May 2014 (UTC)