Because I'm a total geek, that's why.

Know what the first rule of cartooning is? I suspect it's the same as the first rule of flying a Firefly.

"Love. You can learn all the math in the 'verse... but you take a boat in the air that you don't love... she'll shake you off just as sure as the turn of the worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she ought to fall down... tells you she's hurting before she keels. Makes her a home."

For those of you who haven't seen Firefly, the spaceship looks like this, 'cept slightly bigger.

Like the Beatles and J.K. Rowling, the official "making of" story behind the TV series Firefly is as big a legend as the content itself. Like the ragtag outlaws harassed by the totalitarian alliance, Firefly is remembered as a ragtag TV show harassed by the Totalitarian Fox Network. Which would make "Flying" "writing/running a TV show" if one chooses to view with a meta-allegory in mind.

So replace the words "Flying" with "cartooning", "math" with "technique" "boat" with"career" and I think the sentiment holds true enough.