pr
Original: pr on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1 (two men talking):
Man with brown hair: The further I get into my 30s, the more depressed I become.
Friend (off to the side): How's your P over R?
Panel 2:
Brown-haired man: My what?
Friend: Power divided by responsibility. When you're in your 30s, you have very little power, but very little responsibility, so you're okay.
Graph 1 caption: As you age, you get responsibility for more and more things, but your power doesn't increase. P/R shrinks and shrinks.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line sloping downward.)
Graph 2 caption: By 30, you have most adult responsibilities with only a little more control over your life. This is the bottom of the trough.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line dropping to a low point.)
Graph 3 caption: You spend the next 30 years getting more power while gaining few responsibilities.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line curving back upward.)
Graph 4 caption: Then you retire. Power drops off, but responsibility asymptotically approaches zero.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line rising steeply toward the upper right.)
Final panel:
Brown-haired man: I don't think the entirety of human happiness can be reduced to two variables.
Friend: Well, your power of comprehension will be greater in ten years.
Votey:
An old bald man with glasses, speech bubble: Now, continue toiling!
Man with brown hair: The further I get into my 30s, the more depressed I become.
Friend (off to the side): How's your P over R?
Panel 2:
Brown-haired man: My what?
Friend: Power divided by responsibility. When you're in your 30s, you have very little power, but very little responsibility, so you're okay.
Graph 1 caption: As you age, you get responsibility for more and more things, but your power doesn't increase. P/R shrinks and shrinks.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line sloping downward.)
Graph 2 caption: By 30, you have most adult responsibilities with only a little more control over your life. This is the bottom of the trough.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line dropping to a low point.)
Graph 3 caption: You spend the next 30 years getting more power while gaining few responsibilities.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line curving back upward.)
Graph 4 caption: Then you retire. Power drops off, but responsibility asymptotically approaches zero.
(Axes: P/R vs TIME, line rising steeply toward the upper right.)
Final panel:
Brown-haired man: I don't think the entirety of human happiness can be reduced to two variables.
Friend: Well, your power of comprehension will be greater in ten years.
Votey:
An old bald man with glasses, speech bubble: Now, continue toiling!
Alt text
An SMBC comic. A worried brown-haired man tells a friend that the further he gets into his 30s, the more depressed he becomes. The friend asks how his "P over R" is doing. Confused, the man asks "My what?" The friend explains it is Power divided by Responsibility: in your 30s you have little power but little responsibility, so you're okay. A series of four small line graphs plotting P/R against TIME illustrate a life arc. First: as you age you get responsibility for more things but no more power, so P/R shrinks (line slopes down). Second: by 30 you have most adult responsibilities with little extra control, the bottom of the trough (line at a low). Third: over the next 30 years you gain power while gaining few responsibilities (line curves upward). Fourth: then you retire, power drops off but responsibility asymptotically approaches zero (line shoots steeply upward). The brown-haired man protests that human happiness can't be reduced to two variables; the friend replies that his power of comprehension will be greater in ten years. Votey: an old bald bespectacled man cheerfully commands, "Now, continue toiling!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.