Difference between revisions of "2093: Reminders"
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While the comic shows this series of interactions with Cueball, we could interpret this as being how Randall feels about his own lack of attention to the people in his own life. | While the comic shows this series of interactions with Cueball, we could interpret this as being how Randall feels about his own lack of attention to the people in his own life. | ||
| − | The title text points out that if you have too many work and friend relationships to effectively keep up with all of the details in their lives, eventually the number of friends and coworkers will be reduced to the point where you can keep up. | + | The title text points out that if you have too many work and friend relationships to effectively keep up with all of the details in their lives, eventually the number of friends and coworkers will be reduced to the point where you can keep up. Alternatively, your level of commitment could raise to match the amount of relationships you need to keep up with. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
Revision as of 22:44, 2 January 2019
| Reminders |
 Title text: The good news is that if the number of work and friend relationships you have exceeds your willingness to do the bare minimum to keep up with everyone's life events and stuff, one way or another that problem eventually solves itself. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
In this comic, Cueball is using an email client program on a laptop, which is a common way to read and write emails from/to other people. Advanced email client software frequently provides reminders of various kinds to aid the user, and in this case we see a series of reminder alerts with Cueball's response to each one. The final reminder results in the realization by Cueball that he's not very conscientious about what's going in other people's lives, and he expresses this in the text below the image.
While the comic shows this series of interactions with Cueball, we could interpret this as being how Randall feels about his own lack of attention to the people in his own life.
The title text points out that if you have too many work and friend relationships to effectively keep up with all of the details in their lives, eventually the number of friends and coworkers will be reduced to the point where you can keep up. Alternatively, your level of commitment could raise to match the amount of relationships you need to keep up with.
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
- [Cueball using a laptop]
- Laptop: You got this email six days ago. Do you want to follow up?
- Cueball: Oh, right, I should do that.
- *type type*
- Laptop: Did you forget the attachment?
- Cueball: Oops, yes.
- Laptop: Today is the recipient's birthday. Did you want to mention that?
- Cueball: Wait, it is?
- [Caption below the panel:]
- These reminders make me uncomfortable, not because computers are getting too smart, but because it reminds me how often I fall short of even baseline levels of conscientiousness.
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I added an explanation in which I extended Cueball's reaction from the reminders to Randall himself - I believe this is commonly done for many comics, but please feel free to modify it. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 17:25, 2 January 2019 (UTC)
Relevant SMBC: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/gmail 162.158.63.214 13:33, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
I liked the rewrite of my original explanation but made a few additional changes. I re-added the intro about Cueball using an email client program, and I slightly modified the title text explanation - I don't think it's suggesting you'll end up friendless and alone, just with a level of friends that you can keep up with or who are willing to accept your lack of attention to the details of their lives. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 14:08, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
- Yeah, sorry, I kind of stomped all over your original write-up :) I felt it read a bit too much like the transcript and needed more explanation than description. I agree with your updates. Hawthorn (talk) 16:54, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
- No problem - it was just a starting point. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 19:31, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
Is there a real email client capable of all three of these types of reminders? 141.101.107.96 23:02, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
- The default program of the xkcd phone can do this 173.245.52.139 21:09, 7 January 2019 (UTC)
- Probably not the first one, but if not, there probably will be now! ;-) Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 04:51, 4 January 2019 (UTC)
- Gmail definitely can remind you to answer an email (I don't know what exactly triggers this, I have a lot of unanswered emails I do not get reminders about, but I definitely got such reminders in a few cases), and it also warns you about missing attachments. I don't know about birthday reminders, as I didn't tell Google about the birthdays of my contacts. --162.158.93.27 09:57, 4 January 2019 (UTC)
Hah! Funnily at first I mistakenly read “conscientiousness” as “consciousness”; then on second thoughts... :o
