This cartoon wasn’t meant to be particularly funny per se, but is more a comment on a conversation (aka minor skirmish) I had earlier this week. We were talking about risk-taking vs. non-risk taking behaviour, at which point my colleague quipped: “It’s easier to tame a tiger than to paint stripes on a kitty cat.”
The conversation went on for a while until I burst in with a series of complaints of how actually it would not be easier to tame a tiger, it would be in fact much easier to paint stripes on a cat (and safer).
They both looked at me with some amusement as I had missed the whole point, that being it’s easier to make behavioural changes (taming a tiger), than it is to make fundamental shifts in being (changing a kitty cat into a tiger).
All this said, my logic brain would still would favour painting stripes than taming a tiger, but the following quote sort of sums it up:
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
— Henry David Thoreau
simonandfinn 
That’s so strange, I read the first sentence of that quote somewhere else this weekend and thought how interesting it was
Hi Emma! That’s oddly serendipitous. Thank you for the comment 🙂
Hello,
New reader here. Found S&F via Philosophy Now. Funny as heck and a thinking person’s comic as well. Are you just interested in philosophy personally, or have you studied it formally, i.e., school?
Cheers,
not xkcd.
p.s., Ernie is pretty cool too! The forest of envy. Love it.
Hello not xkcd – thanks for the nice comments and for taking the time to post! It made for a great start to my day. My interest in philosophy is more personal and largely spurred by the occasional book or article I come across.
Btw, I visited your work, it’s great! Funny and witty and I love the riffs off xkcd/dinosaur comics. I’m glad to have found your site. Publishing 75 comics is no small feat in my opinion. It’s rewarding though to see how things evolve over time in terms of style/approach. Keep it up, you’ve found a new fan here.
S&F
Hello S&F!
You’re most welcome! Thanks for the kind words and the visit to my comic.
Cheers,
nxkcd.