Comics about mathematics, science, and the student life.

Lead By Example

A long procession of cars is behind me, with several of them honking and beeping. The caption: Me, helping everyone follow the speed limit.

Leaders are always misunderstood.

Calendar Ping Pong

A classic game of "Pong", but the two paddles represent my calendar and your calendar. There are a lot of exchanges.

If the rally goes on too long for a time-sensitive issue, the issue goes away!

Optimal Arrival

A timeline of arriving to a meeting. Around 5 minutes before the meeting is when you should arrive for physical meetings. There's an inset graph near the time of the meeting starts, which shows how you enter a virtual meeting only seconds before the meeting time.

If you arrive more than five seconds before the meeting, there are no established rules of etiquette.

Relative

Left panel (As a student): A student pumps her fist and says, "I have to get this expression exactly right!" Right panel (As a theorist): She puts out a hand and asks, "What's a constant between friends?"

“How can I put in the least effort to answer my question?”

Cramming In

A professor in front of the room says, "It's the last class of the term, but I'll at least introduce this topic." A student raises his hand and asks, "So it won't be on the final?" She responds, "Oh yes, of course it will be a big component." (Pause) "It's also pretty hard."

“Just look at these notes that I’ll post three days before the exam but never explain. You’ll get all the ideas there.”

Never-Ending Projects

A graph of the number of never-ending projects versus overwhelm. The curve rapidly increases without bound. There's an arrow pointing to the curve at high overwhelm which says, "Why endings are useful."

If you’re like me and want to do everything, it’s a lot easier when you don’t require doing each new activity until you die.

Ready

A graph of time working on a problem versus its complexity. At first, complexity just rises. Eventually though, the complexity goes down as you gain a handle on the problem. The ideal publication time is when you've reduced the complexity again.

The first half is all about loading everything into your head, while the second is about sorting it.

Cohorts

Left side (without a cohort): A person stays low on a trampoline. Right side (with a cohort): That person can reach super high while jumping.

I learn and relearn this every day. Never underestimate the power of cohorts.

Crackpot Theory

Left panel: A student runs to her supervisor, waving a piece of paper above her and yelling, "Professor! I finally got one!" Her supervisor says, "Wonderful. I know just what to do with it." Right panel: They've framed the letter on the wall, and it reads, "Dear Joanna, I wanted to share with you my physics theory that everyone has missed..." Her supervisor says, "I'm so proud of you."

I used to think these emails were just a myth from my supervisors. How wrong I was!

Head Start

A timeline of December and January. In the first half of December, you finish the last-minute projects. But in the second half, you get a head start for the new year.

I do this all the time with my reading goals. Do you do this for any area of your life?