2011-03-08
Original: 2011-03-08 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Title (above graph): EVERYTHING WRONG WITH POLITICAL DISCOURSE IN ONE GRAPH:
The comic is a single line graph.
Y-axis label: CONFIDENCE IN OWN VIEWPOINTS
X-axis label: KNOWLEDGE
The curve: starting at the left (low knowledge), confidence shoots up to a tall, sharp peak, then plunges down into a deep valley near the bottom, then climbs back up steeply toward a second high peak at the right (high knowledge).
A red dashed vertical line crosses the graph on the right side, labeled in red text: MAXIMUM KNOWLEDGE OBTAINABLE IN A HUMAN LIFESPAN. The red line sits in the region where the curve is still climbing out of the valley, before it reaches the second peak.
Votey:
Title (above graph): WHERE GOOD WORK HAPPENS
The same U/valley-shaped curve is drawn (high peak on the left, deep valley in the middle, rising again on the right). An arrow points down into the bottom of the valley, indicating that the low-confidence trough is where good work happens.
The comic is a single line graph.
Y-axis label: CONFIDENCE IN OWN VIEWPOINTS
X-axis label: KNOWLEDGE
The curve: starting at the left (low knowledge), confidence shoots up to a tall, sharp peak, then plunges down into a deep valley near the bottom, then climbs back up steeply toward a second high peak at the right (high knowledge).
A red dashed vertical line crosses the graph on the right side, labeled in red text: MAXIMUM KNOWLEDGE OBTAINABLE IN A HUMAN LIFESPAN. The red line sits in the region where the curve is still climbing out of the valley, before it reaches the second peak.
Votey:
Title (above graph): WHERE GOOD WORK HAPPENS
The same U/valley-shaped curve is drawn (high peak on the left, deep valley in the middle, rising again on the right). An arrow points down into the bottom of the valley, indicating that the low-confidence trough is where good work happens.
Alt text
A hand-drawn line graph titled "Everything wrong with political discourse in one graph." The y-axis reads "Confidence in own viewpoints" and the x-axis reads "Knowledge." The curve starts low, spikes to a tall sharp peak at low knowledge (overconfidence with little knowledge), crashes down into a deep valley of low confidence in the middle, then climbs back toward a second tall peak at high knowledge. A red dashed vertical line near the right side is labeled "Maximum knowledge obtainable in a human lifespan" and falls within the valley, before the curve reaches its second confident peak — implying real expertise (and its restored confidence) is unreachable in one lifetime. The joke: confidence is highest among those who know almost nothing, and only the very rare true experts regain confidence, but no human lives long enough to fully get there. Votey (small follow-up panel): the same valley-shaped curve titled "Where good work happens," with an arrow pointing down into the bottom of the low-confidence valley — suggesting the humble, low-confidence trough is where good work actually gets done.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.