It's work on my dissertation. Really.

So I've emailed Howard Taylor of Schlock Mercenary to see if he'll let me reproduce this comic in my dissertation.

Because Tagon's problem of "if I had numbers for it, I'd just leave the maraca in charge" is exactly the problem I'm working on. We want to leave the maraca in charge, so to speak, and have no numbers - no way of efficiently communicating user preference to the optimization algorithm. We have words like "reasonable" and "friendly." I'm working on bridging the gap.

Edit: Oy, TayLER nor TayLOR. Eeediot. Despite my inability to spell his name, Mr. Tayler has graciously said "Yes," decreeing this "the coolest reprint usage ever." :D