xkcd

by **Qaanol** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:34 am UTC

http://xkcd.com/1052/

Title: Someday I'll be the first to get a Ph. D in 'Undeclared'.

In other news, wanting people to go to college makes you a “snob”. And Pirates of Penzance for the win!

Bonus internets for whoever posts a recording of themself singing this.

by **anu3bis** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:39 am UTC

Thank you.
My kid is 5.
I'm putting this comic in a future email for 12 years from now.

by **XbHW_TestEngr** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:41 am UTC

I loved the Feynman reference. I just purchased the books of his Lectures on Physics.

Everything about this comic is pure awesomeness, IMHO.

by **benwr** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:44 am UTC

Did something weird happen? Google reader tells me today's comic is called "Ten Thousand" and I can find mirrors of a "Ten Thousand" comic that point to #1052, but #1052 is "Every Major's Terrible."

by **Milnoc** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:45 am UTC

Forget just singing it! I want to see a video where the entire strip is played out in a live performance!

by **ApolloZani** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:46 am UTC

One of the questions that will likely be answered soon, how long until someone makes a music video of decent quality? Considering the size of xkcd's fanbase and the kinds of things they've done in the past, it shouldn't be too long.

by **Jurgan** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:47 am UTC

benwr wrote:Did something weird happen? Google reader tells me today's comic is called "Ten Thousand" and I can find mirrors of a "Ten Thousand" comic that point to #1052, but #1052 is "Every Major's Terrible."

I saw that. I checked about twenty minutes ago and "Ten Thousand" was up. It was something about taking joy in people discovering common knowledge for the first time. My guess is that Randall accidentally loaded a comic he was saving for another time. My first thought was that we were seeing another Umwelt situation, but I don't think so.

by **Kaelri** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:48 am UTC

benwr wrote:Did something weird happen? Google reader tells me today's comic is called "Ten Thousand" and I can find mirrors of a "Ten Thousand" comic that point to #1052, but #1052 is "Every Major's Terrible."

Confirmed:

The broken image's URL is http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ten_thousand.png.

Probably just human error during the publishing process, but you never know. (My first thought was another 'Umwelt' scenario.)

by **Kvothe** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:49 am UTC

bah, every major isn't terrible, there's still engineering! (except for civil... they apparently don't get jobs anymore)

by **ManaUser** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:50 am UTC

benwr wrote:Did something weird happen? Google reader tells me today's comic is called "Ten Thousand" and I can find mirrors of a "Ten Thousand" comic that point to #1052, but #1052 is "Every Major's Terrible."

Glad it wasn't just me. I actually saw it on this site though. The gist was that you shouldn't make fun of people for not knowing thing "everybody knows" because based on some fairly hasty looking calculations, 10,000 are learning one of those things each day. And by not doing so, you improve the chance you'll get to be the one to tell/show them exciting/horrifying things in the future. The other example was "that mentos and diet coke thing".

by **zwolf4444** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:51 am UTC

There was another comic briefly posted about being one of ten thousand people a day to hear learn something for the first time. The guy takes someone to the store to learn about mentos and soda instead of making fun of them. The mouseover text was about the supervolcano in Yellowstone. Sorry I didn't screenshot it, didn't think I would need to.

by **Alfonzo227** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:53 am UTC

Instant classic, one the best posted recently IMO.

I would like to add that the comment on seismology extends to other branches of geophysics, specifically climate geophysics and meteorology. I've had many lectures where the essence was "Our models are so wrong, your best bet is to predict that nothing will ever change and you'll probably be right most of the time".

by **benwr** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:53 am UTC

Perhaps 'Ten Thousand' was only served to the first ten thousand requests for the page?

by **Icalasari** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:54 am UTC

If my only recording device wasn't my phone, I'd have something up in a few days

As it is, I'll just practice until I can get a headset and sing this loud and proud upon that day

by **DenverCoder9** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:56 am UTC

Preparing to enter college in the fall, planning to major in CS. Those close-perens will be mine!

by **W_A** » Mon May 07, 2012 4:56 am UTC

Randall just quoted pratchett. FUCK YES.

by **Qaanol** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:00 am UTC

A post was made in the original Ten Thousand thread saying Randall simply forgot to turn off the auto-upload, so Ten Thousand was inadvertently published.

Personally I expect it will probably go back up later this week. In the meantime, those of us who saw it can, um, educate 10,000 people who missed it?

I have a cached copy of the image, including title text, but my only hosting service is DropBox and I don’t want to exceed my bandwidth allotment for it by posting something that’ll garner a ton of views.

by **myusernameisthus** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:02 am UTC

I managed to grab the "Ten Thousand" comic before Randall pulled it. Not sure why he pulled it in favor of the majors song, I like this one better.

https://imgur.com/MQQ8U

Alt text: Saying 'what kind of an idiot doesn't know about the Yellowstone supervolcano?' is so much more boring than telling someone about the Yellowstone supervolcano for the first time.

by **walkerm930** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:03 am UTC

It it quite Difficult to say the lyrics in the comic at the tempo of Modern Major General. Because, logically, this is the first thing to try.

by **awatk** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:03 am UTC

Try as I might, I can't sing this to anything but the theme song in the Barney & Friends opening credits. And now its stuck in my head. For the love of all that is holy, someone post it to another tune.

by **DenverCoder9** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:06 am UTC

walkerm930 wrote:It it quite Difficult to say the lyrics in the comic at the tempo of Modern Major General. Because, logically, this is the first thing to try.

It's quite difficult to say the lyrics to Modern Major General at the tempo of Modern Major General.

by **awatk** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:07 am UTC

Try as I might, I can only make this comic work to the tune of the Barney & Friends opening theme. And now it's stuck in my head.

by **samadam** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:08 am UTC

Munroe's drawing has taken a major step up in artistry, and I love it. The figures are drawn with wonderful little details, and the evolution of his designs have really been fun to watch.

Plus, this is a hilarious breakdown of what we all know but don't say about majors. We ain't so great! (notice no knock to EE, eh?)

by **Sulayman-F** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:09 am UTC

I managed to sync it up properly in my head, although in Tom Lehrer's voice.

by **rainspeaker** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:10 am UTC

Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my. This is fantastic.

by **tagno25** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:12 am UTC

Qaanol wrote:I have a cached copy of the image, including title text, but my only hosting service is DropBox and I don’t want to exceed my bandwidth allotment for it by posting something that’ll garner a ton of views.

What about using imgur?

by **cellery** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:13 am UTC

samadam wrote:(notice no knock to EE, eh?)

To be fair, you can only fit so much into the template of Modern Major General.

by **drewjcooper** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:14 am UTC

I can't work out what the best thing is about this comic, the little jokes about each discipline, the alt-text, or that fact that it actually scans.

Well done, sir. The best XKCD for a while. In fact I think this is my second favourite of all time behind "Can't Sleep" (http://xkcd.com/571).

by **Save Point** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:14 am UTC

As long as you don't go to law school.

by **ks_physicist** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:17 am UTC

I'm just fuming that "physics major" redirects to engineer.

Wouldn't bother me quite so much if physics majors could actually still have a decent chance of getting jobs as engineers (as was apparently one the case).

by **drainbramaged** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:19 am UTC

Certainly my favorite in a while. Poster, please!!

by **pbnjstowell** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:20 am UTC

No reference to linguistics?!

I shoulda just majored in everything.

by **Cauchy** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:22 am UTC

Randall, you write that math is "unconstrained by the precepts of reality" like it's a bad thing.

by **mercutio_stencil** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:26 am UTC

Sulayman-F wrote:I managed to sync it up properly in my head, although in Tom Lehrer's voice.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I managed to have Tom Lehrer sing the entire thing through.

Although I am willing to donate one whole internet to whoever actually posts it to youtube first.

by **Theamazingjex** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:28 am UTC

This was the very model of a modern memetic parody.

by **matrix3509** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:30 am UTC

I notice he didn't actually say anything bad about astronomy. BOOM astronomy wins everything forever. If you disagree you are wrong etc.

by **Rai** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:35 am UTC

matrix3509 wrote:I notice he didn't actually say anything bad about astronomy. BOOM astronomy wins everything forever. If you disagree you are wrong etc.

Astronomers all cringe when they hear "supermoon" or "zodiac"

7th row, 1st column.

by **Djehutynakht** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:36 am UTC

Tis not what degree you get, but how far you get beyond the precepts of what that degree is expected to get you which defines your success.

That said, Egyptology is a fairly successful bet provided that you can beat everyone else in the duel to the death for employment.

by **Schmidty589** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:37 am UTC

benwr wrote:Perhaps 'Ten Thousand' was only served to the first ten thousand requests for the page?

Wait, perhaps we should check it tomorrow at midnight. The post stated that 10,000 people learn of something "everyone knows" every day. So perhaps on a new day, it will be a new 10,000 people.

by **Quicksilver** » Mon May 07, 2012 5:38 am UTC

First "Forgot Algebra" then "Every Major's Terrible." This is why I don't care what other people think about me. Universal appreciation for achievements will never happen, there's always someone who thinks it's a waste of time.

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