Life — July 22, 1915 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Explanation for Modern Readers This cartoon satirizes the pretensions of recent college graduates. An editor interviews a young graduate applying for a job, asking if he's written editorials. The graduate's response—"No, sir; but I think I might; train my mind down to it"—reveals his arrogance: he considers editorial writing beneath his current intellectual level and assumes he could easily do it with minimal effort. The joke targets the overconfidence of newly educated young men who believed their diplomas qualified them for important work without practical experience. The editor's skeptical expression suggests he finds this attitude ridiculous. The cartoon mocks both the graduate's inflated ego and the cultural assumption that a college degree automatically conferred superior judgment and capability.