https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Deathtospiders2explain xkcd - User contributions [en]2026-04-16T05:25:14ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.30.0https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1772:_Startup_Opportunity&diff=1324941772: Startup Opportunity2016-12-14T15:18:21Z<p>Deathtospiders2: Added transcript</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1772<br />
| date = December 14, 2016<br />
| title = Startup Opportunity<br />
| image = startup_opportunity.png<br />
| titletext = While there's no formal regulation, it turns out their industry group is NOT one you want mad at you.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
{{incomplete|Created by a BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page.}}<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
[Beret Guy is sitting in a board meeting]<br />
White Hat: We've discovered that your company doesn't do anything.<br />
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Beret Guy: How is that possible?! We have so many chairs!<br />
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White Hat: You need to find an industry to disrupt.<br />
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Beret Guy: An...industry? Oh, yeah! The zoning thing from SimCity!<br />
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White Hat: No, like, a kind of business.<br />
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Beret Guy: How do I find those?<br />
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White Hat: I don't know. What's something you spend a lot of money on?<br />
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[Beret Guy says nothing]<br />
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Beret Guy: You know those mysterious shops that sell you magical items, and then it turns out they're cursed, but when you go back later there's no sign the shop was ever there? I get most of my stuff from those. Like groceries.<br />
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Hairy: We should go.<br />
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Hairbun: Wait. High-value sales, no regulation, and when customers try to complain, they can't find you...<br />
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Cueball: Maybe this ''is'' the perfect startup.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}</div>Deathtospiders2https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=1761:_Blame&diff=1311861761: Blame2016-11-18T14:40:18Z<p>Deathtospiders2: Fixed typos</p>
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<div>{{comic<br />
| number = 1761<br />
| date = November 18, 2016<br />
| title = Blame<br />
| image = blame.png<br />
| titletext = I bet if I yell at my scared friends I will feel better.<br />
}}<br />
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==Explanation==<br />
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{{incomplete|There needs to be more}}<br />
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Cueball states that he feels sad and links it with his observation that bad things are happening. Sadness is a normal human reaction to perceived bad events {{Citation needed}}. (Other emotions that might be felt at such times include anger and guilt.)<br />
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He then reasons that it must be someone's fault. If the "bad things" in question are not natural calamities or accidents, it is usually logical to surmise that someone is responsible for them taking place.<br />
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After some thinking, he has an idea. Ideas are usually the result of thinking {{Citation needed}}, although it might not always be conscious thinking like Cueball is doing.<br />
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He then blames his friends on Facebook, an online website that helps people communicate with other people through their computers and handheld electronic devices. While they could be possible reasons for bad events (for example if the bad event was nobody wishing him a happy birthday or someone posting compromising pictures)his friends would not be a likely source for bad events extending beyond a personal or local scope. Most people have a few hundred (or thousand) friends (or "friends") on Facebook, most of whom do not have enough influence to cause bad events on a national or global level.{{Citation needed}}<br />
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This is probably a reference to people ranting on social media sites (like Facebook) about various things which are blamed on certain people (or sometimes everyone), but the person doing the ranting never thinks that the problem might be with themselves.<br />
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It probably also a reference to how an individual's Facebook news feed has probably been inundated by political posts due to the results of the 2016 United States presidential election. One read on this is that, many people, including news sources, have pointed out that social media forms an echo chamber<ref>http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/24/486941582/the-reason-your-feed-became-an-echo-chamber-and-what-to-do-about-it</ref>, and some sources have claimed that this is responsible both for political polarization<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE3j_RHkqJc&t=2s</ref> and even for the recent victory of Donald Trump<ref>http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-president-social-media-echo-chamber-hypernormalisation-adam-curtis-protests-blame-a7409481.html</ref>. Notably, Randall [[1756|publicly supported Trump's rival, Hillary Clinton in a recent comic]]. Therefore, blaming social media for the election can be read as blaming his friends echoing his ideas back to him as causing (partially) Clinton's loss; thus they are (partially) at fault for his presumed sadness over her loss in the election. A second read on this would be that constant reminders of Clinton's loss only serve to make Randall sadder: again the proximal cause being his friends' posts. A third read would be that friends with whom Cueball/Randall disagrees are posting things that he finds unpleasant to read, either ideas that he finds offensive or posts "rubbing in" the victory of the candidate Randall opposed.<br />
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===Title text===<br />
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The title text refers to people venting, usually in all caps and with exclamation points. Usually, users do this when they are mad. The (humorous) assumption here is that one will feel better after doing so. While some amount of venting might help to relieve immediate stress caused by bad events, alienating people you know by blaming them for bad events usually causes more stress in the long run.<br />
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==Transcript==<br />
:Cueball: I feel sad.<br />
:Bad things are happening.<br />
:They must be someone's fault.<br />
:But whose?<br />
:[A light bulb, indicating he has an idea]<br />
:My friends on Facebook.<br />
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{{comic discussion}}</div>Deathtospiders2