Awesome. I love that feeling I get halfway through one of your comics, when I know something funny and/or unexpected is coming at the end, and I don’t know what it is yet but I know it’s going to be good. If I could get that in a pill form I would be a total junkie.
Actually, I hope I’m never going to be someone who agrees to “your sense of self is developed and refined relative to the other”. As somebody who grew up playing by himself in the woods, I find that my sense of self wanes when in company and gets restored when in solitude. In company, my sense of what I want and need and feel is constantly attacked by the expectations of others and me unconsciously adapting to the “group mind”.
To put it more tritely so that maybe Chloe can understand, I may think I have everything I need when alone (except maybe company), but when comparing myself to others, I may get envious of their possessions or talents and defensive about my own thoughts – as is Dave in this strip. Why doesn’t he simply say, “I don’t want to tell anyone about my day any more. What’s that good for, anyway?” I suspect an honest answer is, “so that others can pat you on the back and affirm your lifestyle”. Sucks to be someone whose self is out of the group norm, because that sort of thing rarely works well for them.
Now where’s the preview button on this comment thingie?
haha in a way i can see where both parties are coming from, but i always believe that a good balance is essential. were human beings, at the end of the day we need isolation just as much as we need interaction. especially love the last 3 panels btw. nice touch on the thought of discussing ideas through the internet, faceblab and the titties 😛
Interestingly it’s very difficult to talk about ideas engagingly without the context of the stuff we do. How would you know that I wanted to hear your theory of miss matches socks if I didn’t tell you that sock mismatch-ment was a serious and continuing problem in my life? Alternatively cold pitched ideas are much better received if they are prefaced with a story of the idea’s inspiration. And then there’s the case of spontaneous ideas when someone think of something interesting in response to the mundane situation you’ve described.
Ideas reference the world around us and for the sharing of an idea to have value between two people the aspect of the world which it references must be made relevant.
That said a lot of people talk about drivel and never put together a more cogent idea than, “I guess sometimes you just can’t win.” So don’t avoid talking to people, just avoid talking to dull, uninteresting people.
I agree with Dave in the comic as well as Mendel and Johnny Paycheck. Chloe has no basis for asserting that only shared experiences matter. What of great scientists like Tesla, then? The isolation and dedication they had to their work was worthless? I think not.
metalife isnt so bad if its shared. some people glean satisfaction from experience, others from theory.
also: (rambling ahoy)
ultimately, yes we are all alone. true connection with another being is impossible, (especially without knowing the answer to The Hard Question).
its all moot anyway- existence itself is so contradictory its almost moot in itself.
so yes, we are nothing. (anatta)
but why is that a bad thing? its freeing, it means that since we can assume a) we arent truly people how we would like to think we are b) we are pretty much always wrong, “meaning” is a foolish thing to “seek”. one cannot seek without a self or a firm grasp on reality. and no one has either.
we can only think- create- experience-
internal or external doesnt matter in the least.
But for panel 16, the cat would not have technically been a break in continuity.
Awesome. I love that feeling I get halfway through one of your comics, when I know something funny and/or unexpected is coming at the end, and I don’t know what it is yet but I know it’s going to be good. If I could get that in a pill form I would be a total junkie.
fantastic.
Yep. Empty, insular, self-obsessed life. That’s me alright.
Love ES&D, read all the archives. This and Subnormality are my personal heaven.
This is my current internal dialog in comic strip form.
@iaoth Just coming off a mean stretch of “Dave” myself.
Thank you for this. Sometimes it’s difficult to find an eloquent way to describe my loathing of social networking, but this does the trick.
Actually, I hope I’m never going to be someone who agrees to “your sense of self is developed and refined relative to the other”. As somebody who grew up playing by himself in the woods, I find that my sense of self wanes when in company and gets restored when in solitude. In company, my sense of what I want and need and feel is constantly attacked by the expectations of others and me unconsciously adapting to the “group mind”.
To put it more tritely so that maybe Chloe can understand, I may think I have everything I need when alone (except maybe company), but when comparing myself to others, I may get envious of their possessions or talents and defensive about my own thoughts – as is Dave in this strip. Why doesn’t he simply say, “I don’t want to tell anyone about my day any more. What’s that good for, anyway?” I suspect an honest answer is, “so that others can pat you on the back and affirm your lifestyle”. Sucks to be someone whose self is out of the group norm, because that sort of thing rarely works well for them.
Now where’s the preview button on this comment thingie?
People are too scared to share their ideas. Experiences are cheap and casual; ideas are precious and fragile.
reminded me of this:
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2543#comic
namely, from smbc, “the only confirmation that reality exists is the shared experiences of human beings in known contexts.”
also, i love the cat under the tits
haha in a way i can see where both parties are coming from, but i always believe that a good balance is essential. were human beings, at the end of the day we need isolation just as much as we need interaction. especially love the last 3 panels btw. nice touch on the thought of discussing ideas through the internet, faceblab and the titties 😛
She has a pretty good grasp of the internet. It’s pretty much just that and watching people hurt themselves on skateboards.
Don’t be like Chloe! Your comic won’t be as interesting. 🙁
Interestingly it’s very difficult to talk about ideas engagingly without the context of the stuff we do. How would you know that I wanted to hear your theory of miss matches socks if I didn’t tell you that sock mismatch-ment was a serious and continuing problem in my life? Alternatively cold pitched ideas are much better received if they are prefaced with a story of the idea’s inspiration. And then there’s the case of spontaneous ideas when someone think of something interesting in response to the mundane situation you’ve described.
Ideas reference the world around us and for the sharing of an idea to have value between two people the aspect of the world which it references must be made relevant.
That said a lot of people talk about drivel and never put together a more cogent idea than, “I guess sometimes you just can’t win.” So don’t avoid talking to people, just avoid talking to dull, uninteresting people.
I agree with Dave in the comic as well as Mendel and Johnny Paycheck. Chloe has no basis for asserting that only shared experiences matter. What of great scientists like Tesla, then? The isolation and dedication they had to their work was worthless? I think not.
metalife isnt so bad if its shared. some people glean satisfaction from experience, others from theory.
also: (rambling ahoy)
ultimately, yes we are all alone. true connection with another being is impossible, (especially without knowing the answer to The Hard Question).
its all moot anyway- existence itself is so contradictory its almost moot in itself.
so yes, we are nothing. (anatta)
but why is that a bad thing? its freeing, it means that since we can assume a) we arent truly people how we would like to think we are b) we are pretty much always wrong, “meaning” is a foolish thing to “seek”. one cannot seek without a self or a firm grasp on reality. and no one has either.
we can only think- create- experience-
internal or external doesnt matter in the least.