The idea behind everything else in this comic is actually pretty solid. Imagine it, you're encountering a problem you haven't encountered in a while, you've been trying to figure out how to fix the problem all day, when suddenly you remember you left a note for yourself on how to fix it. Your heart filling with hope, you click on the word document... and your face just falls down as you read what amounts to "You can't fix it you moron. Start over."
I like how the joke was elaborated on a little, but I think the punchline would have been better served if the joke had been elaborated on in the opposite direction, the beginning rather than the end. The punchline would have a different, fuller, more multi-dimensional feel to it if there was a more obvious sense of disappointment from Chairsit Man.
Nevermind, checked explainxkcd. According to them, Floaty Head's working on old code when he finds a message from his past self saying "Since I wrote this code, code has changed in a way that makes this code not work, start over." which is a similar, but not exact same, thing.
Well, credit where credit is due, that does eliminate my complaint about the setup being rushed. On the other hand, it makes the "it's kinda creepy how you do that" line come off as self congratulatory. "Wow, you sure are good at predicting the future, past self.". But that might just be my hatred of psychics rearing its ugly head.
I'm going to avoid commenting too much on the fact that the joke depends on the reader knowing more about code than I personally know. I don't want to make a major complaint out of the premise of the joke going over my head, lest anyone devalue my other arguments in favor of that one. But yeah, the fact that half the joke is written in code language does make it difficult to understand for plebs like me.
All in all, this comic is a good idea taken down a few pegs by the presentation, but it still works.
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