Friday, January 8, 2010

Don't You Have Anything Better To Do?

Hello again! Has it already been a week since we last spoke? My goodness, how the time flies. Today I am going to talk to you about the common cuddlefish complaint, "don't you have anything better to do?" But first, this aside: I don't know precise figures of hits-per-day, but this blog tends to get upwards of 100 comments per post. While there are a lot of regular contributors, there's also a lot of new and anonymous comments each time. The conclusion I am making here is this: the cuddlefish that complain that we're just jealous that we're not successful are unlikely to ever write something that gets as many viewers or as much discussion as this blog. Food for thought!

Moving on. Don't I have something better to do? Let's take a good hard look at that sentence, because it is loaded. First: it implies that the blog is a waste of time. Second: it implies that the blog takes a lot of time to write. Third: it implies that writing this blog is the only thing we ever do.

The most valid of these attacks is the first one. Writing for this blog, and commenting on the blog and so on, is pretty much purely for entertainment, and you could argue that doing something just to amuse yourself is not the best use of your time. However, participating in the community here also serves some other functions:
  • The best way to improve one's writing is to write frequently. This blog gives everyone involved the chance to write frequently.
  • The best way to improve at skills of analysis is to analyze frequently. What do we do if not analyze XKCD here?
  • Ditto critical thinking, developing a coherent argument, et cetera. The comment threads are frequently a forum for intelligent discussions (and also frequently a forum for brainless cuddlefish arguments) where involved parties develop coherent arguments and think critically about both their own and other arguments. These are useful skills!
Of course, I am here primarily to entertain myself, but as far as a form of entertainment goes, I think this one is fairly constructive on a personal level.

The second one--implying that we're wasting a great deal of time on the site--is simply not accurate. At most a post like this takes a half hour to write, and I do it once per week. More likely, it takes 15-20 minutes to write, and I spend a lot of that time doing other things. Comments are shorter. At the very most I probably sink something like two hours a week on the blog here, and I have seamlessly integrated it into my workflow. It serves as a nice way to take a short break from reading or writing a project, to clear my mind, et cetera. It's a hobby.

The third one--implying that this is the only thing we ever do--is the most baffling. We all have lives and projects. We all have work or school or whatever to occupy our time and minds. I'm happy with my writing and my other projects. I would not struggle to find something to replace this blog were it to suddenly fall silent. But it's fun and it's reasonably successful, and I see no reason to leave.

62 comments:

  1. Fuck off with these shitty rants and focus on the comic and not the people who troll you.

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  2. Hmm. Let me think about that... nope.

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  3. >Implying that anyone does anything on the internet for any other reason then to troll or be trolled.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Anon 3:19

    Oh, what's this? 4chan-speak spilling over into the rest of the internet? How original.

    Anyway, trolling is so overdone I don't think it has much significance anymore. Kind of like how the word "epic" has lost all meaning due to overuse (or rather, it only has meaning when you are around people using it in its original, narrow, specific definition). That and saga. Everything's a saga these days.

    Or, dare I say... an EPIC saga?

    Captcha: foilbe - close but no cigar.

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  6. > Implying that 4chan acronyms and internet culture are erosion of the english language and not drift and cultural evolution of it.

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  7. Isn't saying "Don't you have anything better to do?" usually imply you DO have something better to do?
    Mommy tells me that when I don't do hw, is an example. so your 3rd one is quite off, and what your wrote there could have just been added to the first.
    practicing debates by trying to ARGUE WITH ROB? im going to make this weekly

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  8. and actually, I got 97 on my last Enlish test just from reading Rob's posts.
    who needed xkcd school again?

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  9. >Implying

    Shut the fuck up, 4chan faggot.

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  10. Another point: if this blog is a waste of time, then surely reading and commenting on it, or indeed reading xkcd, also a waste of time.

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  11. Right. How can reading and writing this blog (and the comments) be a waste of time if they're primarily for entertainment?

    Does that mean reading xkcd and frequenting the xkcd forums have some higher purpose?

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  12. this will lead to the who's-more-fun multi stage contest

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  13. Can someone who's less unfamiliar with 4chan explain the ">Implying" thing?

    Also, don't you have anything better to do than hang around on 4chan?

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  14. I'd like to point out that, as the very title of your blog is "XKCD Sucks," wouldn't your analysis be somewhat biased?

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  15. Bias is always bad, and we should strive to eliminate it from our discourse, until the only things left are completely neutral statements devoid of context and content.

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  16. I guess a blog titled "XKCD Sucks" would be rather biased, wouldn't it Anon 11:28?

    I suppose, similarly, a comic that said that advanced mathematics was unsuitable for a liberal-arts major would be pretty biased too.

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  17. @femalethoth

    What are you talking about? being biased is BAD BAD BAD, always. I mean, why should people be able to have an opinion?

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  18. Anon 3:19 is doing it wrong. There has to be two > signs, and you must type in all lowercase with no periods.

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  19. Took me about 10 minutes to write today's post, with a break in the middle to eat delicious chicken wings.


    CHICKEN WINGS, PEOPLE!

    $11

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  20. "Implying that 4chan acronyms and internet culture are erosion of the english language and not drift and cultural evolution of it."

    Meaning can be destroyed by overuse and misappropriation. It is not a bad thing to complain that a word that used to be perfectly valuable is being destroyed, or changed into something useless.

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  21. How epic of you to say that, Rob.

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  22. "4chan acronyms and internet culture"
    "drift and cultural evolution"

    Ah yes, thank you for clarifying this for me. Whereas previously I had recognized that each generation attempts to take control of culture via appropriation of dominant cultural entities such as music, art and (notably for this example) language, I was unaware that these attempts are always 100% successes. Which is why we are still using constructions today such as "Too, too shame-making," thanks to the Bright Young People. Internetspeak is INDEED where modern language is heading, rather than constituting a mere side-eddy or generational flash-in-the-pan.

    Also, I was referring to overuse of "epic" in relation to contemporary movies specifically (which "Epic Movie" parodied so well in its title, even though the film itself was abysmal), rather than 4chan's use of it.

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  23. I come here because I hate XKCD. I don't really care about your insecurities. No offense but you would be better served devoting your attention to Munroe and not the people who dislike you for whatever reason. They are just pathetic trolls, who can think of nothing better to do with their time than complain. Why waste your time/energy on them?

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  24. Are you fucking stupid? Jesus fucking Christ. What the fuck is wrong with you? Did you read the post? Are you really so incredibly fucking stupid?

    If you had read the post in question, you would note that its entire premise is THIS TAKES NO FUCKING TIME. AT ALL. IT IS UTTERLY FUCKING NEGLIGIBLE. It is not detracting at all from the XKCD bashing. I am not wasting time or energy on it. This is something to amuse me and to fill some space on the weekends, since Carl usually posts MWF.

    Do you know what does waste time and energy on it? Dealing with the same fucking comments every single fucking day. I have noticed a marked decrease in the number of comments which make the attacks I've addressed in this little series since I posted each of them. Over time, I've decided it's more efficient to write a detailed take-down of common arguments every week, which allows more space and a higher readership than an individual comment. It will not be foolproof, of course, but it also means that you can easily link to a post which deals with an attack in detail. This forces them to either shut up, continue feebly trolling and be roundly mocked, or engage in intelligent discourse.

    I understand that you don't care. You need to understand that I don't care that you don't care. Like, you are never going to deter me from posting these by not caring.

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  25. @Femalethoth
    The point was, that, if the blog is about analyzing XKCD, bias wouldn't exactly be something desirable, would it?

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  26. That depends. Why are you analyzing XKCD?

    If you're analysing it in order to determine if it incited hate crimes in Bosnia, then bias is undesirable.

    If you're analysing it for your own entertainment, then bias is hilariously irrelevant.

    ---

    I'm pretty stunned at Anonymous troll who begins "I come here because I hate XKCD", since he manages to make the same arguments the trolls here make, in BOTH directions, as a response to a post deconstructing those very arguments.

    Let me make this into a Socratic dialog:

    Chorus of Trolls: "Why do you waste your time? Why don't you, say, fix my electrical wiring instead."
    Rob, playing XKCDSucks: "This doesn't take time, and it's more fun than fixing your damn wires, you ignorant sluts."
    New Troll: "Why do you waste your time with the chorus of trolls? The chorus of trolls is just wasting their time. The chorus of trolls should instead erect a grand monument in my honour, and you should take tap-dancing lessons, both of which uplift humanity and are therefore far less of a waste of time than this, according to me, the Minister in Charge of Determining the Value of Aactivities. I have spoken."

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  27. If one of the main reasons you're posting here is to improve your analysis skills, then surely bias is not irrelevant?

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  28. That's a helpful aside. The main reason I'm doing it is to amuse myself.

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  29. fair enough

    however, things do start to get controversial when one tries to convince others they are right and others are wrong

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  30. I mean, that's the entirety of human existence. I don't think that a slight bias towards XKCD sucking invalidates any of the arguments.

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  31. You can be biased and still make a more correct statement than someone who is "unbiased." That is, the presence of bias does not necessarily mean that one's statement is invalid (or rendered mere "opinion").

    The historian Tony Bath put it well, I think: "I will undoubtedly be accused by some of being biased in Hannibal's favour; to this accusation I freely plead guilty. It is my humble opinion that no worthwhile historian is free of a measure of bias. You write about a period or a man because you are genuinely interested in it or him, and through this interest you inevitably tend to favour one side or the other. A writer who shows no bias at all is one who lacks enthusiasm for his subject, with the result that the book he produces is usually dull. I hope that I have restrained my bias within reasonable grounds and that my readers will not find the account lacking in interest, but I am certainly not ashamed of my belief that Hannibal ranked with the highest for military ability."

    The "restrained my bias" part is what is important. Rob is well within his limits, if he so chooses, to be as biased as he wants, as long as he still backs up his claims (which he does). To reiterate, most of the frequenters of this site (including myself) are biased against xkcd, but that does not automatically invalide our criticism. But if we were to say "this comic sucks because it is an xkcd comic," then that would be an inappropriate use of bias.

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  32. Rob, it's obvious that you do care about all of the "cuddlefish", or else you wouldn't be making all of those posts.

    Also, you got pissed off really hard by Anon 6:03 AM, and most of them are trolls anyway. This isn't good for your health. Humor is humor, but then there's a post like "THIS TAKES NO FUCKING TIME. AT ALL. IT IS UTTERLY FUCKING NEGLIGIBLE." that.

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  33. I like how people assume that because I took an extra half a second to hit the caps lock when someone is being extra stupid it means that I'm pissed off.

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  34. The fact that you felt the need to press the caps lock, "because someone is being extra stupid", points to that.

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  35. I take delight in comically overplayed internet rage. Anyone who accuses me of taking this at all seriously is a complete idiot.

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  36. hmm on a completely irrelevant note I just noticed this for the first time

    http://www.buttercupfestival.com/58vol5.htm

    http://www.xkcd.com/313/

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  37. "Out of this anarchy, it suddenly became clear that what was governing the infinite monkeys now inputting away in the internet was the law of digital Darwinism, the survival of the loudest and most opinionated. Under these rules, the only way to intellectually prevail is by infinite filibustering." (Andrew Keen, The Cult of the Amatuer)

    This quote reminds me of Rob.

    Sunshine.

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  38. I like how you have taken the time to track down a username I use in multiple locations in order to post a quote from one of the greatest hacks in modern philosophy (presumably) intending to insult me. That's creepy dedication, right there. Keep fucking that chicken.

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  39. Your username? That's badass, I had no idea.

    no, it wasn't an insult. i intended it as a compliment. (see how you liked it already)

    Filibustering is a nice, right? right?

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  40. Aww, my stalker is shy! It's okay, stalker, I still think you're adorable.

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  41. I would not struggle to find something to replace this blog were it to suddenly fall silent.

    I enjoyed the entire post but I agree so much with that sentence that I had to italicize it. I think that is the most important thing you have contributed to this blog in your entire useless existence, Rob, well done!

    What was your username? Dr. Cello?

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  42. to sum up everything I have seen on this site: wah wah, people like a webcomic that i don't, they must be stupid cuddlefish, lets blog about it.

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  43. you forgot "I'm rob and I am sad because no one will have sex with me, boo hoo"

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  44. My first post on this site.

    While I disagree with the "Don't you have anything better to do?" criticism, I don't particularly think the second or third assumption you make are implied.

    The third assumption you make is a more general case of the second: it takes a lot of time, it takes all of your time.

    Anyway, my basic point is that the criticism implies that there's something more meaningful or productive (economist-think: utility-increasing) that you could be doing with your life during the period of time in which you write on this blog, no matter how much time that is. Your first point seems to cover that, but you could just as easily say you enjoy doing it and so everyone else can f*** off. Just saying.

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  45. Man I know XKCD sucks from time to time but i'm not THAT pissed about it jesus. It's mabye worth a FB post about it but an entire site?!

    It's not like it's THAT big a deal you have to write a blog that will OBVIOUSLY attract bad attention.

    I just go read something else.

    Haters gone hate.

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  46. What exactly are you expecting out of randall by posting this anywayz?

    It's not like he makes you pay to read them.

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  47. I'm sure someone has mentioned this, but it bothers me how you spell cuttlefish incorrectly. Everything else I agree with 100%.

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  48. ugh, this is why we made a FAQ! because this Q is Fly Ad!

    in short: we are doing this on purpose.

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  49. we aren't spelling cuttlefish at all. we are spelling cuddlefish.

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  50. So, what you're really saying is...you DON'T have anything better to do.

    Man, that's so sad, I can't even snark at you for it.

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  51. Is it any sadder than the fact that you didn't have anything better to do than type that comment?

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  52. not everyone has the opportunity to do something wonderful with their lives. Sure, some people get to be in a position where they make wonderful scientific discoveries or make lots of money or whatever, but most people just exist without impacting too many people. So what if we are in the - far larger - latter group?

    What do YOU do with your time that is so special?

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  53. The people who write this blog are losers. Not necessarily because the blog is a waste of time (it is), because the content is rubbish (it is), or because you're clearly clueless (you are). No, it's because you have a ridiculously inflated sense of your self-worth. The hundreds who comment here on a regular basis are similarly parasitic. That is all.

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  54. Good job shitting on the little success, fame, and happiness this nerdy loser carved out for himself. You can plainly see the doubt and self-loathing on his face. Awesome.

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  55. wait - is the blog worthless, or do we have hundreds of readers who enjoy spending time here? I don't see how it can be both.

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  56. "I don't see how it can be both."
    Easily: The hundreds of readers are worthless parasites of Randalls work.
    That's what he meant I guess.

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  57. When you get down to it isn't all this essentially just because you're angry at the guy for slagging off liberal arts majors? I mean publish what you like, that's the beauty of the internet, but all this whiney justification seems like you trying to convince yourself you're not just being petty. I'm not particularly into xkcd by the way (I think it's o.k, nothing fantastic) but this site is just plain depressing.

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