xkcd #3232: Countdown Standard
Title text:
Anyone who is caught counting ‘three … two … one … zero … GO!’ will be punished with a lifetime of eating only ISO standard food samples.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3232/
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I’ve also heard people do “three… two… one!” and then do the thing on “one”…
Obviously for this case we need to add a signifier for the countdown so it’s clear to the other parties that you are aware of the standard and adhering to it before you even begin the countdown.
Like “ISO three two one GO!”
This is semi-backwards compatible, but still confusing for normies.
Even better, just make up new words where the ambiguity never existed. No numbers at all, just “glarp dook peow” and we always go on “peow” and always have. No backwards compatibility, but you’ll be guaranteed that a person who doesn’t understand will need clarification, and won’t go unexpectedly through imagined agreement.
Or, if backwards compatibility is required, we could count up from 1 to 3… and our signifier phrase could be something like “awnthree”. As a label for the standard we’re using! Like, “awnthree, one, two, three”.
I think that could work 😛
I think you need a fourth word for better timing. A person might misinterpret the duration between glarp and dook, and arrive at peow too early or late. Just one more timing sample is better to reduce human error.
I’ve seen this a few times and just started at them and told them they were an idiot.
they unironically wanted to go on “one”. dumbasses
XKCD 927 comes to mind.
I’m genuinely surprised it’s not mentioned in the hover text … though I think you can see it in between the lines there.
In T2: Judgement Day, when Miles Dyson has to turn two keys simultaneously to open the vault to get the Terminator prototypes, they go
3-2-1-turn and then AFTER that, they turn. How many times would people have messed that up, learning such a weird pattern? That’s totally unintuitive!
Apollo 11 voice goes ‘4, 3, 2, 1, 0, liftoff’.
Liftoff is a non-integral byproduct of the countdown, not an actual canon part of the sequence.
If you don’t say liftoff then the rockets don’t ignite.
You ignite the rocket before liftoff though?
Right, but if you don’t say it, they won’t have ignited.
Isn’t it
“on three: one, two, THREE!”
Five is right out!
One, two, five!
The real problem in my opinion is people count too slowly and irregularly for a precise sync up. Better to learn from the world of music and count off
One ee and ah, two ee and ah, three ee and ah GO
You can count me in like that but I insist a full measure of Mars, Bringer of War.
I have been wanting to have this argument with david bowie but then he had to up and die so now i have to have it with his ghost. how inconsiderate.
Name this movie:
John Lithgow: “okay this is just a practice, nobody do ANYTHING. 3 - 2 - 1 - cut.”
Pretty sure other languages do this differently.
Do we go on one?
Has the XKCD guy been nostalgia-watching *Bring It On"?
I’m a theatre tech and stagehand. “Go” is saved for cue calls. It’s always lift on three. One two THREE.
LX7 Standby
Standing
Playing Chained Together we had so many jumps that a full count was too long, so we took out the 3 entirely and counted fast. “2 1 Go! 2 1 Go!” Very successful. That game even counts for you if you press the hotkey, but it takes five full seconds, and there’s lava rising down there!
Why do you hate Space Battleship Yamato?!
