10,000 Hours
10,000 Hours
[Cueball is staring at his phone. A report from the phone is shown above his head] If you buy into the "10,000 hours" thing, you are now a world-class expert!
[Caption below comic] My screen time reports have started trying to put a positive spin on things.

This comic references a common refrain that one must do something for 10,000 hours to become an expert on it.
The linked article states:
Popular smartphone operating systems automatically record the amount of time the user spends using their phone, broken down by time spent in each app. This feature is supposed to allow users to analyze their own habits. On iOS, this feature is called Screen Time . On Android, it is called Digital Wellbeing .
In this comic, Cueball 's phone tells him that, assuming that the 10,000-hour idea is correct, he is now a master of a task, because of the amount of time he has spent on his phone. The 10,000-hour refrain usually pertains to the arts or sports, because they require a certain level of skill; learning to spend time on one's phone does not require this level of training [ citation needed ] , so this stretch of time does not bring Cueball closer to achieving any goal. Furthermore, it is not clear exactly what task (or possibly tasks) Cueball is supposed to have mastered.
Randall often pokes fun at his extensive screen time, such as in 2223: Screen Time . Cueball's phone wants to delicately approach the topic so as not to make Cueball feel bad, so the euphemism about expertise is meant to distract him from realizing how much time he actually spends on his phone. Also, the phone tells Cueball that he was become a "world-class expert", when really he is just someone who checks his phone way too much. It is interesting that his phone decides to be kind to him, even when he has neglected it before ( 1668: Singularity ).
The title text refers to the fact that people eat a lot, 1-2 hours a day , though not all of this time is spent chewing. At the time of this comic's publication, Randall was just over 36 years old (13,151 days), so he has spent a large amount of time eating, well over 10,000 hours. It could also be a reference to the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, in which Calvin refers to routines he has created to improve at chewing.
[Cueball is staring at his phone. A report from the phone is shown above his head] If you buy into the "10,000 hours" thing, you are now a world-class expert!
[Caption below comic] My screen time reports have started trying to put a positive spin on things.
