Relevant xkcd

A quote from xkcd, or a link to a specific xkcd cartoon.

«xkcd», a favorite webcomic for many nerdy-types on the internet, has been around a long time. During its lifetime, it has made numerous jokes on and around technology, society and many, many examples of shenanigans of all kinds.

Combine these three facts—a long life, a large list of topics and a large fanbase—and you get a highly quotable and highly quoted source.

Prominent in Reddit and Twitter conversations¹, the relevant xkcd manifests itself as a link to a specific xkcd cartoon, depicting the subject in question. For example:

–Man, this home office thing is messing up my sleep schedules
–Relevant xkcd

The relevant xkcd often pops up as a reminder that an idea (or its setbacks) have already occurred to others. For example:

–The Flat Earth Society grew its memberships by 13% last year!
–Relevant xkcd

The relevant xkcd has now become a shorthand for many internet discussions. Hopefully, it’s used as a starting point for useful discussion, rather than a premature end to it.

Some recurring themes

• On arguments over the Internet.
• On Logic puzzles.
• On standards that cover everyone’s use cases.
• On password and passphrase strength—always a favorite topic of conversation at your local cryptography group dinner.
• On applying your favorite algorithm to current problems
  • Sepcifically, using blockchain
• On RNGs

External links

• Relevant XKCD, by Dan Zhang and Megan Ruthven
• Another Relevant XKCD by Greenfrogs
• r/RelevantXKCD, a low-activity subreddit
• What would be the relevant xkcd for the statement: “There is always a relevant xkcd”?

July 13, 2020 ⇐ Part of Brevity Quest 2020 (276 words) ⇒ July 21, 2020

1. I’m aware that I’m using the word «conversation» with a lot of generosity here.