How To

Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems

by Randall Munroe

Paperback, 308 pages

English language

Published Sept. 5, 2019 by Hodder & Stoughton.

ISBN:: 978-1-4736-8033-3

(61 reviews)

The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the million-selling What If? and Thing Explainer

For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.

The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the million-selling What If? and Thing Explainer

Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a millennial by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the moon. And if you want to get rid of this book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapour, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the sun.

By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, he invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.

7 editions

The Weaver Reads reviewed How To by Randall Munroe

Goodreads of How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems

5 stars

I managed to stumble upon this book while looking for something fun and scientific to read. I recognized Munroe, as I read his xkcd comic all throughout high school and always loved it. In fact, it had a formative effect on me. I had read them from start to finish (as of ~2013). I was so pleased to find that this book had the same "energy" and life as his comics. I learned a lot, and I laughed all my way doing so. It made me think about some things I observe in a different way. For instance, yesterday I was on a swing. I'm 195 cm and weigh around 105 kg. I wondered what it would take for me to flip all the way around the top of the swing. I don't have any answers, but Munroe helped me realize the sort of work I would need to do …

Basically, it's a blast, and I couldn't stop talking about this book as I read it.

Soh Kam Yung reviewed How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

How to get things done in absurb ways.

4 stars

A very entertaining book about how to solve 'common' problems in unusual ways that don't break the laws of physics. In a series of mostly short stand-alone chapters (which occasionally refer the reader to other chapters for related how-tos), you may learn:

how to either solve common day problems in unusual ways (how to play a piano that can play notes from the sub-sonic to ultrasonic range, or charge your phone when there are no power outlets)
how to logically think about common actions (how far you could actually throw various things, from coins to footballs)
how to do absurd things (like landing a plane on a ski slope, or build a lava moat)

how to either solve common day problems in unusual ways (how to play a piano that can play notes from the sub-sonic to ultrasonic range, or charge your phone when there are no power outlets)
how to logically think about common actions (how far you could actually throw various things, from coins to footballs)
how to do absurd things (like landing a plane on a ski slope, or build a lava moat)

The chapters are mostly unconnected to each other, making it easy to read the book chapter by chapter, while allowing you to digest the humour and strangeness of each way to achieve a task. By the end of the book, you will definitely have learned to how to do tasks in the strangest ways physically possible.

As a disclaimer, the author does recommend at the start that you really shouldn't try to do what he suggests in the book, as they are supposed to be hypothetical exercises; or the author would like you to think that.

Throughout the book, the author's signature stick figures doing unusual things are featured, giving you an idea of what's in store if you actually did try to do what is suggested in the book.

Gilles KIU reviewed How To by Randall Munroe

Interesting

4 stars

It was interesting. Some problems and solutions may seems too far away or impossible to conduct. But the inside logic and way to find a solution fit every problem in actual life.

Benjamin Hollon reviewed How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

Review of 'How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This book was amazing! It met my expectations and I actually learned a few new things. I finally understand how relativity applies to the speed of light and learned that the US Secretary of Transportation can unilaterally move territories between time zones.

I thoroughly recommend this book!

Wetdryvac reviewed How To by Randall Munroe

Review of 'How To' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was good fun.

Allen reviewed How To by Randall Munroe

Review of 'How To' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I liked this book about as much as XKCD. The chapters, like the comic, were hit or miss. But the misses are worth enduring in order to experience the hits.

bedone reviewed How To by Randall Munroe

Review of 'How To' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

This was entertaining overall but dragged in the middle. The best parts are the sections where the author talks about reaching out to other people for help answering his ridiculous questions.

Jolteon reviewed How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems by Randall Munroe

Review of 'How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The same kind of coffee table book as "What If", although I thought "What If" was better.

Kathrin Passig reviewed How To by Randall Munroe

Review of 'How To' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Ein gutes und nützliches Buch. Lieblingssatz (Einstieg ins Kapitel "How to Build a Lava Moat"): "There are lots of reasons for wanting a lava moat around your house, some more practical than others." Außerdem viele hervorragende Fußnoten.