1502: Wasted Time

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Wasted Time

Title text: Since it sounds like your time spent typing can't possibly be less productive than your time spent not typing, have you tried typing SLOWER?

Explanation

In this comic, White Hat is pointing out to Cueball that his obsession with efficiency is inconsistent, something that is likely true of many people who claim to prize efficiency.

Here, Cueball raves about his new mobile keyboard which allows him to type 30% faster than his old keyboard. He notes that people (presumably himself particularly) do a lot of mobile typing, and a 30% reduction in the time that takes would allow more time for other activities.

White Hat, on the other hand, mocks Cueball for caring so much about mobile typing speed, suggesting that this may not be the first time Cueball has obsessed over minor improvements in efficiency. White Hat also notes that he's just seen Cueball open and close Google News five times without reading anything, providing an example of how Cueball's other actions do not embody the same commitment to efficiency that he claims to have.

Cueball defends himself by saying that, since he wastes so much time, it's that much more important to improve efficiency in his life to make more time for important matters. The title text (presumably White Hat's reply) counters this defense by suggesting that Cueball may be better off using a slower keyboard, so that he will have less time to waste on stupid activities. This type of argument may be an example of a logical fallacy argument which suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that Cueball should spend less time doing stupid things to the extent that he spends longer doing things he already does.

Interestingly, in this comic, White Hat appears as the voice of reason to Cueball, an inversion of their typical dynamic (see for instance 1386: People are Stupid and 1459: Documents). The role-reversal may be an acknowledgment that while Cueball may often make a fool of White Hat, he's far from perfect himself.

Randall's misadventures in time management are a recurring topic (see 874: Time Management and the Time management category).

Mobile keyboard efficiency was previously tangentially referenced in 1068: Swiftkey, and Randall's habit of opening news sites only to quickly get bored or distracted was shown in 1411: Loop.

Transcript

[Cueball holding his smartphone in both hands is talking to White Hat.]

Cueball: This new keyboard is like 30% faster! I'm never going back.

[White Hat replies and Cueball lifts his arms.]

White Hat: Good, put those years of horror behind you.

Cueball: C'mon. Sure, sometimes my focus on efficiency doesn't make sense. But we type a lot.

[Cueball holding his smartphone in one hand while talking to White Hat.]

Cueball: That 30% improvement pretty quickly adds up to a huge amount of wasted time rescued.

[White hat replies and Cueball lifts one arm.]

White Hat: I just watched you open Google News and then close it without reading it five times in a row.

Cueball: The fact that I spend most of my time so stupidly only makes it more important not to waste any here.

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Discussion

If I'm reading the revision history correctly, the Incomplete notice was incomplete when added - if it's a person who added it, then just a typo. If it's a bot, possibly a bug in the bot. Z (talk) 05:09, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

Didn’t Momo tell us, that we can’t save time – and if we you, someone other uses it? ;-). --DaB. (talk) 12:45, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

another one on time management: https://xkcd.com/1205/ sirKitKat (talk) 14:37, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

... which, coincidentally (or not?) is an anagram, numerically speaking, of this one's number. Gearoid (talk) 08:47, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

There where so many comics listed with time management as a theme, so I have created the Time management category and references this instead of a long list of comics (both here and in several of these - so far - 9 comics). --Kynde (talk) 13:47, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm the only one who thinks white hat is annoying? Perhaps one of this days we could see Black hat "taking care" of White hat 173.245.48.29 20:38, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm glad I don't waste my time doing pointless things like contributing to a wiki about a webcomic! The Goyim speaks (talk) 17:17, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Anyone else think the characters in this comic are are a little shorter than usual? It may just be the bigger heads, but it's kind of funny. -- LuigiBrick (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

well, if nothing else, I gotta say- typing really fast feels damn good Borkedisthegaming (talk) 15:45, 21 October 2024 (UTC)