2013-01-26
Original: 2013-01-26 on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
A single-panel comic showing a hand-drawn line graph.
Y-axis label: "HOW COMPLEX YOU BELIEVE SOCIETY IS"
X-axis label: "AGE"
The curve is shaped like a bell curve, starting low, rising to a peak in the middle, and falling back down. Two points along the x-axis are marked: "COLLEGE" (near the start of the rise) and "RETIREMENT" (near the end of the fall).
Annotations along the curve (color-coded by mood, low to high complexity belief):
At the low rising point near COLLEGE (green): "I COULD FIX THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IF THEY'D LISTEN TO ME!"
Partway up the curve (orange/gold): "WELL... MAYBE..."
At the peak of the curve (red): "SCREW IT. TOO COMPLICATED. CAN'T BE FIXED."
Coming back down on the other side (orange/gold): "WELL... MAYBE..."
At the low point near RETIREMENT (green): "I COULD FIX THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IF THEY'D LISTEN TO ME!"
Votey:
A small boxed legend reads:
"Units:
X axis: Years
Y axis: Fuckits"
Y-axis label: "HOW COMPLEX YOU BELIEVE SOCIETY IS"
X-axis label: "AGE"
The curve is shaped like a bell curve, starting low, rising to a peak in the middle, and falling back down. Two points along the x-axis are marked: "COLLEGE" (near the start of the rise) and "RETIREMENT" (near the end of the fall).
Annotations along the curve (color-coded by mood, low to high complexity belief):
At the low rising point near COLLEGE (green): "I COULD FIX THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IF THEY'D LISTEN TO ME!"
Partway up the curve (orange/gold): "WELL... MAYBE..."
At the peak of the curve (red): "SCREW IT. TOO COMPLICATED. CAN'T BE FIXED."
Coming back down on the other side (orange/gold): "WELL... MAYBE..."
At the low point near RETIREMENT (green): "I COULD FIX THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IF THEY'D LISTEN TO ME!"
Votey:
A small boxed legend reads:
"Units:
X axis: Years
Y axis: Fuckits"
Alt text
A hand-drawn single-panel comic of a bell-curve line graph. The y-axis is labeled "How complex you believe society is" and the x-axis is labeled "Age," with "College" marked near the start and "Retirement" near the end. The curve rises from low to a high peak in the middle, then falls back to low, with mood-colored quotes along it. At both low ends (in green, near college and near retirement) the same confident line appears: "I could fix the whole damn system if they'd listen to me!" Partway up and down (orange) it reads "Well... maybe..." At the peak (red) it reads "Screw it. Too complicated. Can't be fixed." The joke: people start and end life believing they can fix society, but in middle age, when they understand it best, they give up. The votey aftercomic is a small boxed legend: "Units: X axis: Years, Y axis: Fuckits" — a crude unit label for the chart.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.