The False Economy Principle

The perfect encapsulation of academic gatekeeping! Top panel shows a music professor drowning students in complex notation while saying "it's not rocket science." Bottom panel shows an aerospace engineer pointing at actual rocket schematics saying "it's not music theory." Every field thinks their complexity is the baseline while dismissing others as trivial. Meanwhile students are sobbing in both classes. Trust me, after 30 years in academia, I've seen engineering students crumble at Bach and music majors faint at differential equations. We're all just specialized monkeys pretending our particular banana is the hardest to peel.

The existential crisis every physics student faces when they realize that our most advanced nuclear technology is essentially just a fancy kettle. Splitting atoms to... *checks notes*... boil water? Billions in research, decades of development, and terrifying destructive potential - all to create steam that turns a turbine. Talk about the ultimate anticlimax! It's like discovering the secret ingredient in your grandma's legendary sauce is just ketchup.

The mechanical manifestation of existential dread! A gear labeled "Me" desperately trying to turn the shaft of "Life" without proper lubrication. Classic engineering metaphor for how we're all just cogs in the machine, grinding away until our teeth wear down. Next maintenance check: probably never. The universe's most relatable mechanical coupling!

The barista wrote "Edison" and "Tesla" on these coffee cups, which explains the electrifying rivalry in your morning brew. Direct current vs alternating current in caffeinated form. No wonder it tastes weird – these two would rather die than share the same menu. The bitter taste isn't just the coffee; it's 140 years of scientific animosity.

The mathematical hierarchy of suffering! Someone circled all the advanced math functions on a scientific calculator and labeled them "the most useless buttons." Engineers and math majors everywhere just felt a disturbance in the force. Those buttons—logarithms, trigonometric functions, square roots—are literally what separates "I can add numbers" from "I can calculate orbital trajectories." It's like calling a surgeon's scalpel useless because you only need scissors to cut paper. The irony is that these "useless" functions built modern civilization, from bridges to smartphones. But sure, let's stick to addition and subtraction!

Fleming's Right Hand Rule explained by a cartoon teenager making a gun shape with his hand. The rule determines how current, magnetic field, and motion interact in electromagnetism. Physics students spend years mastering this, but apparently all we needed was a nervous kid gesturing dramatically. Next semester I'll just show Rick and Morty instead of writing 40 equations on the board. Would probably improve my teaching evaluations.