explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:2104: Biff Tannen

2019-01-28T19:14:43Z

162.158.186.138: Derp first time commenting

I thought Biff jumped from 2015 to 1955, not 1985...? Young Biff had the Almanac in his pocket at the High School dance and the tower he built was already in place in 1985.


Collusion with a time traveler would bring a few things into focus. [[Special:Contributions/173.245.54.25|173.245.54.25]] 15:24, 28 January 2019 (UTC)
:You inspire ''one'' house painter to change careers & suddenly everyone blames you for everything.
:[[User:ProphetZarquon|ProphetZarquon]] ([[User talk:ProphetZarquon|talk]]) 16:23, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillbilly_Elegy
[[Special:Contributions/172.68.65.198|172.68.65.198]] 15:39, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

Do we keep the “cheat at sports betting” wording? I don’t know if this is cheating. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.136|108.162.210.136]] 17:22, 28 January 2019 (UTC)
:Cheating is generally heald to be using something unavailable to anyone else in the normal course of play to gain an advantage. I'd say using the almanac towards those ends definitely applies. [[User:Mjm87|Mjm87]] ([[User talk:Mjm87|talk]]) 19:07, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

If anyone questions the fact that newspapers in real life did attempt to assert that the rise of Trump was inevitable, various newspaper articles may easily be found as proof with a Google Search for [Donald Trump inevitable], preferably restricted to results before 2017, so as to remove results about things he did later. I don't know how best to incorporate such results as a source in the article, as the number of citations could easily be made too big, and also I don't know if anyone cares. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.210.136|108.162.210.136]] 17:30, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

I am from Europe, and I do not understand the issue. If event X happens while you predicted Y, isn't researching and hypothising a good way to find out why, possibly learning new things in the process? Saying you don't want to debate the issue is like hating politics. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.104.131|141.101.104.131]] 18:27, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

: Many people who understand politics hate it. On behalf of my fellow continenteans, I apologize for 141.101.104.131, who apparently believes that politics overlaps with political science. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.114.40|162.158.114.40]] 18:51, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

:Note that ''Hillbilly Elegy'' could not have been intended to explain the Trump election, having been written before it. However, it was interpreted this way. I have attempted to make this clear in the explanation.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.179|108.162.212.179]] 18:53, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, Biff is based off of Donald Trump, so the Donald Trump analogy may be more likely than not. I can't quite recall where I read this, but there are quite a few similarities between the two. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.138|162.158.186.138]] 19:14, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

Talk:2104: Biff Tannen

2019-01-28T19:12:57Z

162.158.186.138:

2101: Technical Analysis

2019-01-22T01:40:10Z

162.158.186.138: started a table

{{comic
| number = 2101
| date = January 21, 2019
| title = Technical Analysis
| image = technical_analysis.png
| titletext = "I [suspect] that we are throwing more and more of our resources, including the cream of our youth, into financial activities remote from the production of goods and services, into activities that generate high private rewards disproportionate to their social productivity. I suspect that the immense power of the computer is being harnessed to this 'paper economy', not to do the same transactions more economically but to balloon the quantity and variety of financial exchanges." --James Tobin, July 1984
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| Comic is still undergoing TECHNICAL ANALYSIS (this is just the prologue). Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|Technical analysis}} is a field which attempts to study stock markets, cryptocurrency markets, etc. statistically (without regard to the fundamental value of the assets), seeking to profit off the patterns that are found there.

The theoretical value of a stock is the sum of all its future earnings, with earnings in the future discounted appropriately to account for the {{w|time value of money}}. Because these earnings are never fully predictable, traders may have different ideas about the true value of a stock, and buy the stock if they believe the currently offered prices are particularly low, or sell it when the prices are high.

Technical analysis, however, does not even attempt to understand the earnings of the stock, instead focusing on the shapes and patterns that result from traders making their moves. While there is a human behavioral component to stock trading, it is not clear that one can extract much information from the shapes of stock charts. To the extent it does work, a substantial part of its success may be simply an artifact of the herd behavior of traders who engage in technical analysis, a zero-sum game.

The comic displays a {{w|Candlestick chart|stock price chart}}, annotated with labels which purport to be technical analysis. These labels are nonsense from the perspective of technical analysis, but do accurately describe the graph itself: "{{w|allegro}}" (a musical term used to set the tempo at the beginning of a score), "{{w|prologue}}" (an introductory section of a play, book, or similar), "{{w|lumbar}} support" (the thing in a chair shaped to better support your back), "bathtub" (possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"), "{{w|uptalk}}" (a speech pattern). One label celebrates that "these two points define a line! Promising signal." (In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line.)

{| class="wikitable"
|+Graph labels and possible meanings
|-
|Allegro
|Tempo notation in music: played quickly and brightly - a series of very small changes in this region of the graph might suggest notes played quickly
|-
|Decline
|Describes a negative trend
|-
|Doldrums
|A stagnant section of the graph with little movement
|-
|Spline
|A spline is a mathematical means of generating a smooth curve, referring to the smoothed curve shown here
|-
|Prologue
|A prologue is an introduction to a book or other work; this presumably refers to the initial period of minimal growth which is moving toward a much more active period
|-
|Lumbar Support
|A cushion or other device that provides support to the lower part of the ''spine'', a play on the preceding ''spline''
|-
|Renewal
|Strong upward trend; also might suggest the growth of green bars, like greening up in the spring
|-
|Hmm!
|
|-
|Hark! The cliffs!
|A long bar suggesting a steep cliff
|-
|Declination
|Another term for a downward trend
|-
|Inflection
|A point at which the slope of a graph changes
|-
|Uptalk
|A pattern of speech in which each sentence ends with rising inflection? like a question? A play on "uptick", and also on the second meaning of "inflection"
|-
|Bathtub
|possibly a reference to the so-called "{{w|Bathtub curve}}"
|-
|These two points define a line! Promising signal.
|In Euclidian geometry, any two points define a line; also looks somewhat like a communication line between two towers
|-
|Yikes
|
|-
|Wrong!
|
|-
|Slope
|
|-
|Could be an omen
|
|-
|Red + Green = Christmas
|
|-
|Likely to continue forever
|
|}

The mouseover text is a quote from {{w|James Tobin}} (from his 1984 paper [https://economicsociologydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tobin-on-the-efficiency-of-the-financial-system.pdf ''On the efficiency of the financial system'']) that raises a question of very talented people building systems to make themselves a lot of money without actually accomplishing anything worth money. This concern is perhaps not in and of itself about technical analysis, but more about the stock market and related trading ecosystems in general, in particular high speed traders. While it is not always easy to understand why certain forms of market activity might be valuable, and hard to put a price tag on concepts like "risk," "liquidity" and "price discovery," sometimes people are just working to trick others into bad deals, or forcing market participants to pay them {{w|Rent-seeking|unearned money}}. This may make the smart people a lot of money, but it does so by harming society, not helping it.

Interestingly, this comic appeared the day after [https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/billionaire-wealth-grows-by-25-billion-a-day-while-poorest-wealth-falls/ Oxfam] reported that the world's 2,200 billionaires had added 12% to their wealth in 2018, while the 3.8 billion people comprising the poorest half of the world's population had lost 11%. Perhaps this prompted what appears to be Randall's jab at those whose business is merely making money.

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A series of red and green box-and-whisker plots form a line that starts in the bottom left corner of the image and wiggles up to the top right corner, with a series of peaks and troughs that resemble a typical stock market diagram. The diagram is annotated with lines, arrows and text.]

::[Title in top left corner]
::The basics of technical analysis

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes:]
::Allegro

::[A horizontal bracket encompasses the next three sections]
::Prologue

::[Slope becomes slightly negative. Mostly red boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Decline

::[A roughly horizontal section with mostly green boxes, bordered with a black line above and below:]
::Doldrums

::[Line curves upwards with mostly green boxes, with a dashed black line below:]
::Spline

::[Three green boxes at minor peaks in the line are circled and indicated with arrows:]
::[Hmm!]

::[A section with slight positive slope and a mixture of red and green boxes, with a solid black line below:]
::Lumbar support

::[Slope increases. All green boxes, with a black line through the centre:]
::Renewal

::[A sharp upwards incline, with two large green boxes:]
::Hark! The cliffs!

::[Two black dots and a dashed black line connect two major peaks:]
::These two points define a line! Promising signal

::[Inside trough between two major peaks is a roughly drawn black triangle:]
::Bathtub

::[Slope becomes negative, mostly red boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Declination

::[At the lowest point of the trough:]
::Inflection

::[Slope becomes positive, mostly green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Uptalk

::[Slight negative slope, with large error bars. Mixture of red and green boxes. One red box is marked with an arrow:]
::Yikes!

::[Negative slope, all red boxes. Gap between two central boxes is circled:]
::Wrong!

::[Line rises then falls. Mixture of red and green boxes with non-parallel dashed black lines above and below:]
::If I add some lines here I can convince myself I'm doing something more than just seeing patterns in a graph of a random walk.

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a black line through the centre:]
::Slope!

::[One error bar on a green box is circled:]
::Could be an omen?

::[Arrow indicating peak:]
::Red + Green = Christmas!

::[Positive slope, all green boxes with a wiggly black arrow through the centre. A separate arrow points off the edge of the page:]
::Likely to continue forever

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics with color]]
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Christmas]] 
[[Category:Music]] 
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]

1994: Repairs

2018-05-22T03:04:26Z

162.158.186.138: /* Explanation */

{{comic
| number = 1994
| date = May 16, 2018
| title = Repairs
| image = repairs.png
| titletext = I was just disassembling it over the course of five hours so it would fit in the trash more efficiently.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete| CURRENTLY BEING REPAIRED. Lacks cross references/ analogies to similar cartoons, and the ups and downs in the graph need to be explained individually.}}

This graph depicts the sentiment created by the act of repairing something, depending on the time it took (x-axis) and ensuing result (y-axis). The degree of triumph and exultation (expressed in sentences in quotes inside the graph) is strongly enhanced by the time the operation takes, and is also positively correlated with the result (if any). Actions during the repair process are described in sentences without quotes.
The conclusions are rather optimistic; the most negative feeling expressed (after the maximum time of repair with minimum degree of success) is a threat against other objects that might have plans to break.

The graph shows a main path most of his fixes apparently usually take (solid line) along with some variations they sometimes take (dotted lines). Projects usually start out with items that mostly work, but have minor problems. Occasionally they just need a cleaning (first dotted line). If that doesn't work, he takes them partly apart, and then there are times he's able to put them back together and get them to either work completely (one branch of a dotted line) or get it back to the condition it started out in (other branch of a dotted line), at which point he doesn't tempt fate by continuing, knowing what's likely to happen if he continues messing with it. When it's still not working, he takes it apart more completely, starts doing less reversible things like cutting wires, and finally starts watching YouTube videos hopefully showing the right way to fix it, or at least how others fixed it. This takes it to a state just one step above "Will never work again", after which there can be several results: One dotted line shows it's restored to being fully fixed and he feels victorious and proud that all the hard work payed off. The next dotted line is when he gets it partially working again, and gives up, satisfied to at least not have completely destroyed it even though it's a little worse than before. The third, main path result is total failure, which he could take as a personal failure but to which he instead responds with humor by admonishing the rest of his possessions not to develop minor problems otherwise the same total destruction might happen to them. This path ends up a partial step below "Will never work again" so it's unclear what that state is... maybe that's the "throw it away" state.

The title text shows another excuse for failure. Nobody would spend five hours being a trash compactor.

A similar sentiment was expressed in [[349: Success]]. However, in [[349: Success]] the computer would keep developing new problems and putting Cueball in worse and worse situations while in this comic it is just that Randall has increasing trouble fixing the issue as time wears on.

==Transcript==
:[Caption above the diagram:]
:'''<big>How well something works</big>'''
:After I decide to fix it

:[The comic shows a graph with a solid curve that decreases in 8 different sized steps from the top left to the bottom right. The X-axis shows time passes and gives the time from zero to five hours with 6 ticks with labels beneath. The Y-axis shows how well something works with 8 ticks, but only four of them labeled.]

:Works great
:Has minor problems
:Doesn't work

:Will never work again

:0 hours   1 hour   2 hours   3 hours   4 hours   5 hours

:[The solid line has six labels with eight arrow pointing to different sections, two times the same label has two arrows pointing to different sections the first two places where the lines takes a step down, and the second to two plateaus on either side of a step. In total the arrows point four times on both steps and plateaus. Both the first and final plateau has a dot has added to the line, and the arrows point to those. Above the solid line there are three dotted lines going up from three plateaus just before the solid line takes a step down, the last two of these lines split up in two, with one going higher. At the end of each of these five dotted lines there is a sentence spoken. The solid line begins at the 2nd tick on the Y-Axis and finishes at the last. The three dotted lines going up ends up at the 1. tick on the Y-axis, for the last two there are also a line ending at the 2nd tick and 3rd tick respectively. Only the first label being above the first tick on the X-axis but the last three labels are all above the last tick on the X-Axis. Here is a list of all the labels in chronological order according to the position on the X-axis. For those that has the same time stamp the top one will be mentioned first. Those at the end of a line are indented:]
:I start trying to fix it
::"It just needed cleaning!"
:Take it apart
::"Fixed it!"
::"Well, at least it's not ''more'' broken than when I started."
:Take it apart more
:Watch YouTube instructional videos
:Take a deep breath and cut wires
::"That was heroic and I deserve a Nobel prize."
::"Well, it ''sort'' of works now."
:(Turn to other possessions)
::"...And let that be a lesson to you."

==Trivia==
*The initial version of the normal sized image at [[xkcd]] was [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/d/de/20180516052839%21repairs.png broken]. This was later repaired.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Line graphs]]