Next Steps
now: science?
Comments (54)
I know they're easy to draw, but a bookshelf without books is wasted space.
I think wikipedia hours should be logged as part of your CV
No one is as competent as you imagine them to be. Just do what you can do.
Elizabeth needs a Mrs. Landingham to shout “What’s next?” at.
I understood that reference.
As someone who very recently started his first office job...yes...many solitaire games have been played.
Elizabeth doesn't realize it, but I think she needs Claire so so badly, both as a source of structure and as a role model. What we saw in Claire a few strips back is that even when Claire is terrified, she's prepared to tackle this sort of completely unstructured situation and has the mental toolkit to do it. Elizabeth + Claire's skillset and outlook = unstoppable.
Most people could use a librarian in their life.
She hates being called, "Lizzy." (I don't blame her.) We don't know how she fells about just, "Liz" at this point. Elizabeth is too many syllables and too many keystrokes. Same goes for Doctor Appleboom or just Appleboom. For now I shall refer to her as DA or DocA unless and until she states another preference.
Could be worse. Could be "Betty" or "Bitsy"
seventh panel: something abruptly bursts into flame why yes, I do work in IT
I finished my PhD twenty years ago and this strip is giving me terrifying flashbacks. I'll be over here screaming silently into a pillow.
start your new job in customer support!!! but don't worry! it's only a stepping stone! and with your background you will get there faster than everyone one else!!! (paraphrasing my own life..)
Also, coffee.
Clare clearly needs to stay, they don't just need a firm hand, they also need a central person who understands humans.
Veronica needs to design a work uniform for Claire.
Clearly hasn't had enough coffee... yet.
Wondering if Cubetown is the science equivalent to Hotel California?
repo California: you can -checkout any time you like but you can never -commit
Oh honey. That one is rough
*Checks grant proposal* … oh no.
I hate when the employer says "here's your title. Now define it". It's happened once. I left as soon as it was an option.
I had a job that functioned alright like that for a while. The problem was, it resulted in upper management seeing me as doing nothing, thus being treated like I had never done anything the second they got involved.
"Now what?" The final sentence of any college career.
Or "What, now?"
Time for Minesweeper.
Is that why she doesn’t want the librarian? Because she’s afraid Claire will find out she does nothing?
So is that room full of loose paper just a giant pile of self-rejected project ideas, accumulated over a two-year span?
Attempts at proofs that ended up with counterexamples.
I have a hard time imagining someone getting a PhD in any field without being left with burning curiosity for its unsolved problems and unexplored areas. Then again, I guess she did speedrun it?
Pursuing a PhD is a lot more self-directed than an undergrad degree, but it's still pretty structured: you have classes to take, exams to pass, and a thesis advisor giving feedback (hopefully) on your research. It can be a big jump from that to being completely on one's own, especially if its a place as disorganized as Cubetown.
And here we see the start of Elizabeth's evolution from PhD Prodigy to Feral Science Goblin.
Okay, I feel that. Everything leading up to the Great Work, all the preparation, the credentials, the praise, the recognition that you are the very best one to do it and then… what exactly was the Great Work going to be again?
People who know more about long hair than I: Her hair seems much shorter here than in Marten's Quest For Coffee. Does that tell us something about the minimum timeframe, or is it just something where she has it all bound up in that ponytail?
I mean, last strip said "two years ago", so I'm guessing this took place about two years ago. ;)
Probably more common than one might think, coming from such a controlled arena, such as academia, when one finds oneself on one's own, the question of "now what?" Likely comes up often.
I know I had a similar feeling after graduating college. I was in school for a majority of my life at that point and then suddenly I gotta work but didn’t know how or what to do. Fortunately it got better, but at least I was in my early 20s then. Poor girl doesn’t have even that, or rather she got it sooner than she should have 😭
You can sing the end text to the Freakazoid theme. "Time to play some solitaire! Freakazoid! Freakazoid!"
Time to connect to the Cubetown mail server and install the appropriate enterprise software and..... Wait, this is Cubetown. Time to set up your own mail server and code all the applications you'll need and....
Cubetown is starting to resemble the thousand monkeys* at a thousand typewriters. Pretty soon one of them will compose "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times". (*Exceptionally intelligent ones, though.)
"I'm smarter than all of you." So... um... why am I here?
"If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room"
She looks so lonely there.
Did they just hire Elizabeth without telling her what her job entailed?
Like Tragic Kingdom by: No Doubt
I am still so confused why she would want Claire to turn down the job!!
I suspect that we will slowly learn the good doctor's motivations as this flashback unfolds.
Oh. They don't have ANY structure. At all.
Well, they didn’t back then. And I’m sure they still don’t.
time to science the shit out of this!
SCIENCE!
So people need a structure to work off of, I know I do.
Make science go now! . o O (That's what I say whenever I sit down at a desk.)
Make (whatever) go now is more common than you think. There was a T-shirt (Make ride go!) Is an unofficial Disney employee product.