Editing 2679: Quantified Self
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| − | + | {{incomplete|Created by an IMAGINARY PATH-STRING STRANGULATION VICTIM. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
| − | + | [[Cueball]] embraces the {{w|quantified self}}, a popular philosophy promoting monitoring yourself with devices and data in the hope to help your well-being. He claims to apply this philosophy to his life, but he does so in a unique and absurdly humorous way, with help from a smart watch or handheld mobile device. [[Randall]]'s caption indicates he is interested in the quantified self for unusual quantities. | |
| − | + | Typically, fitness apps and wearable devices will track the number of steps that users take and distances walked or run, along with other measurements such as heart rate, blood oxygenation level, blood pressure, and mood. This is to encourage users to be more physically active. However, Cueball has chosen to track a modified version of this metric, in which his path is post-processed by contracting it. Ordinarily, people begin and end their days in bed; in this case, it can get 'caught' where Cueball has passed through topological tunnels. (See [[2658: Coffee Cup Holes]] and [[2625: Field Topology]] for details.) In the comic strip, we see that, over the course of his week, Cueball has looped through his house twice (which could itself conceal any number of activities, so long as he left through his front door and returned through his back door) and crossed under two highway overpasses, a highway sign, and apparently the St. Louis {{w|Gateway Arch}} before almost returning home. | |
| − | + | This comic appeared two days after [https://blog.google/products/search/new-ways-to-make-more-sustainable-choices/ Google's announcement that Maps Directions will be sortable by sustainability,] along with their support of self-quantification for sustainability when shopping for automobiles, used goods, and food. This may be particularly notable because of tech industry discussions between employees and executives about cost-benefit analyses comparing sharply increased profits and productivity from work-from-home to the value of coastal region commercial office space holdings and leases, relative to [https://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/scope-3-inventory-guidance scope 3 emissions].[https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2021-04-28/google-is-saving-1-billion-per-year-as-a-result-of-employees-working-from-home][https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-cutting-office-space-predict-long-term-savings-11625493601][https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/google-googl-wants-employees-to-return-to-office-despite-productivity-gains][https://www.reuters.com/world/the-great-reboot/pay-cut-google-employees-who-work-home-could-lose-money-2021-08-10/][https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/01/14/google-spends-billions-on-buying-office-buildings-is-this-a-sign-of-the-post-pandemic-pushback-against-remote-work/][https://www.computerworld.com/article/3659891/google-others-adding-office-space-in-anticipation-of-the-great-return.html] | |
| − | The title text mentions several things that would make the red path longer: passing one way through a tube | + | An "imaginary thread" connecting a person to where they came from (as portrayed in this comic, distinct from a mystical {{w|silver cord}} or {{w|red thread of fate}}) has been attested[https://www.reddit.com/r/OCD/comments/1ve309/invisible_thread_attached_to_my_back_am_i_the/][https://www.reddit.com/r/xkcd/comments/xs50yr/xkcd_2679_quantified_self/iqjcmbv/?context=3] by some experiencing OCD conditions (Obsessive-compulsive disorder; see also [[245: Floor Tiles]], [[100: Family Circus]].) See below for further elaboration. |
| + | |||
| + | The title text mentions several things that would make the red path longer: passing (one way) through a tube (water slide) or tunnel (subway or car wash), riding on a ferris wheel, or entering a building through one door and exiting another, in all cases the imaginary string would be "captured" and make the total distance longer. | ||
===OCD interpretation=== | ===OCD interpretation=== | ||
| − | The quantity Cueball measures can be recognized as a specific type of OCD where people feel like they have an imaginary string connecting them to where they come from.{{Actual citation needed}} | + | The quantity Cueball measures can be recognized as a specific type of OCD where people feel like they have an imaginary string connecting them to where they come from.{{Actual citation needed}} |
As they move around, that string gets entangled and they feel the urge to untangle it. When they enter a car, they feel the need to exit the car from the same door, to avoid that the string gets trapped by forever passing through the car. When they enter a building, they feel they need to exit using the same staircases and doorway(s), to avoid entangling the string in the building. Some situations, like turning around a lamp post, are OK because you can imagine removing the loop over the top of the lamp post, such that it is not really entangled. | As they move around, that string gets entangled and they feel the urge to untangle it. When they enter a car, they feel the need to exit the car from the same door, to avoid that the string gets trapped by forever passing through the car. When they enter a building, they feel they need to exit using the same staircases and doorway(s), to avoid entangling the string in the building. Some situations, like turning around a lamp post, are OK because you can imagine removing the loop over the top of the lamp post, such that it is not really entangled. | ||
| − | Cueball tries a new approach to deal with this OCD by integrating it in his quantified self. He defines precisely how to measure the length of the imaginary string, reduced to its minimum, and chooses this as a quantity to monitor. Unlike most people with this OCD, who feel the urge to minimize the length, Cueball takes the opposite stance trying to maximize the (optimally minimal) length of the string. By defining as a target to achieve a given length every day, he creates a drive to embrace situations that entangle the string. This drive opposes the natural compulsion to avoid them and hopefully cancels it. The joke of the title text is that Cueball now becomes overly interested in all the things that are disturbing for people with the OCD. | + | Cueball tries a new approach to deal with this OCD by integrating it in his quantified self. He defines precisely how to measure the length of the imaginary string, reduced to its minimum, and chooses this as a quantity to monitor. Unlike most people with this OCD, who feel the urge to minimize the length, Cueball takes the opposite stance trying to maximize the (optimally minimal) length of the string. |
| + | |||
| + | This could be thought as a therapy. By defining as a target to achieve a given length every day, he creates a drive to embrace situations that entangle the string. This drive opposes the natural compulsion to avoid them and hopefully cancels it. The joke of the title text is that Cueball now becomes overly interested in all the things that are disturbing for people with the OCD. The monitoring has just reversed his obsession. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
| − | :[A red path links two red Cueballs. It start from the left Cueball, does two loops through a small house, under a first road bridge, under a gantry sign, under a second road bridge, under the Gateway Arch, and to a second red Cueball on the right. That Cueball is looking at a smart watch | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| + | |||
| + | :[A red path links two red Cueballs. It start from the left Cueball, does two loops through a small house, under a first road bridge, under a gantry sign, under a second road bridge, under the Gateway Arch, and to a second red Cueball on the right. That Cueball is looking at a smart watch or a mobile device.] | ||
:Red Cueball's watch or mobile device: Good job! You hit your weekly goal for "total length of your path through space if you minimize its length by pulling it taut, maneuvering it around solid objects but not through them." | :Red Cueball's watch or mobile device: Good job! You hit your weekly goal for "total length of your path through space if you minimize its length by pulling it taut, maneuvering it around solid objects but not through them." | ||
