SMBC Comics Forum

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-f ... l-equation

Anyone ever noticed (or, better yet, calculated) the frequency with which Zach repeats the word "THE" after a line break?

Reminds me of a coworker who asked me, "Have you seen The Saving The Private Ryan?"

Nice cartoon!
But I would disagree with the statement "Utility remains constant" given the graph. It would seem "Desire to help", Y, is negatively correlated with "Ability to help", X. So Y = A - B*X. When you define utility as the product of "Desire to help" and "Ability to help", it follows that utility = Y * X = A*X - B * X^2. This formula has a local maximum when the derivative equals zero, so at A - 2*B*X = 0. It follows that utility of children grows until the age where ability to help equals A /(2*B) , after which it decreases again. So maybe if we can quantify the parameters of this system, we can find a way to trap our children forever in the state where utility is maximised?

I noticed the other day that Zach had fixed the doubled "THE" in the second panel, and now it's unfixed again.

Curiouser and curiouser!

Tony wrote:I noticed the other day that Zach had fixed the doubled "THE" in the second panel, and now it's unfixed again.

Curiouser and curiouser!

Don't you mean Curioser and the curioser?

BlueKrait wrote:Don't you mean Curioser and the curioser?

No, I don't.

Edit: Oh, you were making a joke about having an extra "the" in there! Hahaha! Sorry I missed that.

BlueKrait wrote:Don't you mean Curioser and the curioser?

That sound like one of those 80s cartoons about a parental figure taking a gaggle of kids on science themed adventures.