this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
603 points (95.6% liked)

Comic Strips

20732 readers
4056 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
lawrence@lemmy.world
603
Just work harder™ (jlai.lu)
submitted 2 weeks ago by Bad@jlai.lu to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

[a foot race is setup in a stadium, in which a confused green character has to start 100m away from the finish line, while a smug orange character starts 10m away from the finish line]

[orange easily finishes first, and smugly proclaims] Another easy win! I am better than everyone!

[green, on all fours, visibly tired and sweating] Well that was unfair…

[orange, covered in medals and holding a trophy, points at green angrily and scolds them] Get a grip What a sore loser You just hate success!

[yellow watches the race on TV, and rants about it from their sofa] If green wanted to win, he should have worked harder Some people are just allergic to effort Entitled… (?) (?)… millenials Always looking for excuses People need to be taught discipline Immigr… (?) Typical green behavior Should seize opportunities Bootstraps Quitter behavior Green people want to be poor

https://thebad.website/comic/just_work_harder

top 26 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SailorFuzz@lemmy.world 53 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The visual flow for dialog is bad. Especially on panel 3. The way the eyes move from panel 2 to 3 has you read the dialog from orange on panel 2 directly to the orange dialog on panel 3. Especially since orange's dialog is higher in the panel.

Convention is to read the highest text first. So it reads as though orange is just unprompted berating green, to which then green is responding to that (that the berating is unfair, not that the race was unfair). When you realize that's the wrong order, and you're supposed to read the lower text first, then it makes sense that green is stating the fault initially and then orange is attacking green for that.

[–] MrLLM@ani.social 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

While you’ve got a point and it’s constructive feedback, you gotta give them credit for not using AI.

I feel like people with drawings skills that most consider poor, are the one’s more likely to use AI, the artist made the effort and had the courage to post it despite it being “imperfect”

[–] Foxfire@pawb.social 6 points 2 weeks ago

I'm not even sure why the criticism is so highly upvoted; it's literally a crude stickman comic. It feels on par with pointing out the distances between 100m and 50m appear shorter than 50m and 10m. The intent was purely the message, and that gets across perfectly fine.

[–] DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I like the "born on third base; think they hit a home run" analogy, too.

These guys look like they're crawling at first glance. Took me a second to realize they were in a crouch position getting ready to sprint.

[–] halfsalesman@piefed.social 22 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Honestly, I get it, some dipshits starts way ahead and you started in the gutter.

Most people however legitimately start in the gutter and don't even try, embrace anti-intellectualism, and see people climbing their way out of the gutter as traitors. And I fucking hate those people more than the douche with a silver spoon up his ass.

[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 6 points 2 weeks ago

Truly sad people that are holding back social progress.

The "accept your lot in life/things are what they are" crowd. They believe this is the best it can be for them and that it's the way things have to be otherwise they must admit things could be better and all their efforts in life have been in vain. So to protect their fragile egos they embrace the bottom of the barrel. They see any who try to highlight that things should and could be better as agitators just trying to make people upset and their lash out because it contradicts their foundational worldview.

It is sad because it is literally a trauma response to protect their psyche. If they ever had to accept reality they would crash out in despair and the brain naturally will do damn near anything to avoid that.

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

I hate it when the success stories are used as ammunition. Because a tiny minority made it super successful its possible for anyone to do it, and if its possible for anyone then its realistic for everyone, so anyone who didn't is fundamentally bad. They may be stupid, lazy, crooked, unambitious, but fundamentally bad in some way.

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk 22 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Only if you play by their rules

[–] Ethalis@jlai.lu 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

So much this.

"- I hate the fact that my landlord gets half the money I make without doing anything to earn it!

-If you think it's so easy why don't you buy yourself a flat and rent it?"

Well because I don't fucking want to become a bloodsucking leech myself, is that so hard to understand?

[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Because to buy one I'd need a mortgage and no bank is going to give me one because I didn't have the chance to build up a good credit rating.

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

You're paying 800 a month, so you cant afford to build up enough savings to get a mortgage to convince the bank you can afford 500 a month.

[–] the_q@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 weeks ago

This. Success within this system is defined by said system.

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

What else do you think you are supposed to do, when if you run out of time, you are put on a treadmill of work, so you don't have any time or energy to pivot. I ironically used to think I'm smarter than others, because I know I'm not smart, as confusing as that sounds. I thought "Other's think they are smart, special, better than everyone, I don't, and I treat myself as a tool, and think realistically". Nope, the exceptional people who climb out, have special experience, luck, or better genes. No, I will be buying freedom the very hard way.

Most people probably had the exact same idea at some point. I thought I could work smarter with automation, that if I can't be a good trader, I will just develop some app and leverage up to a million users with minimum maintenance of the app. Turns out, those disadvantages do matter just enough.

[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

I think you completely missed the point.

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't exchange time for money

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk -1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

  1. Build assets that earn without you.

  2. Build systems that run without you.

  3. Build distribution that multiplies output.

  4. Build leverage through capital, people or tech.

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How would one go about this without any money?

[–] deHaga@feddit.uk 1 points 2 weeks ago

Sell drugs

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Also every time he loses he goes twice farther from goalpost

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Playing in the arcade made me realise the role of luck no matter how much I try, which influenced my worldview. I've never really felt bitter about life as a result.

Then as I grew older, I learned that arcades are rigged to make you spend more money to buy more tokens and keep playing but keep losing and the cycle repeats. It's when you become adult you realise that life is rigged. And like with the arcade where you hit the machine or shake it to get your money back out of frustration, you have to shake the rigged system that we are in as well.

[–] sausager@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

I feel like the yellow guy should be red.. for some reason

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Green shouldn't just be behind. They should be in some kind of pit and with one leg.

[–] sploder@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

A bop about this very subject that I listen to weekly

The Poor

[–] Bad@jlai.lu 2 points 2 weeks ago

Also available as a smugimation