Talk:2273: Truck Proximity

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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Lots of dinosaurs driving equipment on a farm out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUmxUWs1Uk or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmgHz8zBZlk 173.245.52.97 20:47, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

Can see a strong argument that Randall got the axes wrong here... Heylukeatthat (talk) 21:09, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

How so? I don't see it... There are people with truck-related hobbies who know more info about trucks than the frequency of their proximity to them might demand; which accounts for the asymmetry in the upper-right cluster. Having kids (especially male children raised with heteronormative socially dimorphic entertainment sets, which frequently adhere to traditional social expectations of "stuff for boys") definitely increases one's exposure to truck-related topics. What's the case for the axes being reversed?
ProphetZarquon (talk) 21:30, 26 February 2020 (UTC)
I just read his comment as suggesting the x and y axes should be swapped, where 'proximity to trucks' should be on the x-axis. I'd agree that conventionally that would make more sense, and it was likely done this way to impact the 'reading order' of the clusters for comic effect. --162.158.214.88 22:18, 26 February 2020 (UTC)
Don't you know? Having knowledge of trucks causes a physical attraction force between you and the truck. 172.69.34.58 01:25, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
The real issue is that the most proximity (distance 0) is at some random point far away from the center of the coordinate system and the center of the coordinate system is some random distance away from a truck. Fabian42 (talk) 02:59, 27 February 2020 (UTC)
Economics graphs often reverse the axes like that. Though in this case, I saw it as correlational rather than explicitly causal, so I didn't even notice.

Wait, has Randall come into possession of offspring? Specifically, of the "between 2 and 5 years of age, assigned male at birth" variety? 162.158.79.35 22:37, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

This is what I came here curious about! Or is he just making this observation about some friends/family he spends time with?--162.158.214.82 23:11, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

I can think of one job that puts someone into that bottom-right corner: total loss valuation specialists (particularly ones specializing in commercial vehicles). We don't get within a hundred miles of trucks, and yet we know substantially more about them than the people who submit the claims to us do (and sometimes more than the owners do). --Skyrender (talk) 02:31, 27 February 2020 (UTC)