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Randall Munroe is the author of How To.

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How To Book Summary - How To Book explained in key points

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How To summary

Name: How To
Rating: 3.8 (74 reviews)
Author: Randall Munroe

Randall Munroe

Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems

3.8 (74 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

'How To' by Randall Munroe is a humorous and informative guide that explains complex topics in simple terms using stick figures and absurd hypothetical scenarios. It's a fascinating read that teaches you how to solve real-world problems with a touch of humor.

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Natural Sciences General Knowledge

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How To
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? A madcap adventure through some of reality’s most absurd possibilities.

The Blinkist library contains many useful self-help guides, full of practical information on how to accomplish a wide range of personal and professional goals. This is something quite different. In fact, it’s pretty much the opposite.

Here, you’ll learn how to do things you never wanted to do in ways you’d never want to try. You’ll also learn completely impractical solutions to everyday problems based on real math, science and history.

What’s the point? Well, partly just to have a laugh. But these blinks will also help you look at the world from a different perspective. Through Randall Munroe’s zany point of view, you’ll see some of the equally zany possibilities hidden inside the actual laws and properties of the universe.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how to crash land an airplane on a submarine;
how to use a moon to generate electricity on Mars; and
how to explore the universe by (almost) traveling faster than light.

When crashing an airplane, slow and steady wins the race.

Here’s a question that most self-help guides fail to answer: When you’re flying a small airplane over the countryside and it suddenly malfunctions, where should you crash land it?

Your best bet is a freshly planted farm field. Cornfields are okay until the middle of June. You don’t want the crops to be too thick and tall, because then they might flip the plane over. A field of sunflowers, for instance, would be a bad idea. Alternatively, you can aim for a cow pasture. Just make sure you don’t run into any cows. Oh, and try not to have your airplane malfunction on a rainy day. You don’t want to land in mud.

In a pinch, land on top of a train or a flatbed truck. Just slow your airplane down to match the speed of the vehicle, then gently touch down on top of it. Keep in mind that a train or a truck is always bumping up and down a little as it moves forward, so be careful not to bounce off as you land. That little issue aside, this is a totally viable technique. Air show pilots can do it, so there’s no reason you can’t do it, too.

But what if you’re flying over the sea? In that case, you can employ a similar technique with an aircraft carrier, or even a surfaced submarine. Just ask the captain to steer his ship as fast as he can into the wind. This would give you headwinds of up to 60 miles per hour to fly against as you approach the ship. That will slow you down in relation to it, letting you land on a short surface.

To make your plane even slower as you land, you’ll want to turn off the throttle and put down your wing flaps – but make sure you retract them the moment you touch down. Otherwise, the wind could blow your plane off the ship. Also, keep your hand on the throttle and be ready to shove it forward to take off again, just in case you mess up.

After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and you can always try again.

If you don’t have a water pipeline, filling a swimming pool with water is difficult but doable.

Having successfully crash-landed an airplane, you’ll probably want to celebrate and relax. What better way to do that than a pool party? But first, you need a pool.

Fortunately, building an in-ground pool is pretty simple. Just dig a big hole in the ground and line it with plastic to make sure your pool doesn’t turn into a muddy pond. Then, all you have to do is fill it with water. If you want it to be big enough to accommodate a diving board, you’ll need about 20,000 gallons of water.

Digging a gigantic hole in the ground is simple if you have the right tools.

Now that you know how to fill your in-ground swimming pool with 150,000 bottles of Fiji water, all you need to do is start digging a hole. That brings us to our next question. How do you dig a big enough hole?

Well, the simplest way is with a shovel. Depending on the type of ground you’re trying to excavate, you’ll be able to remove about 0.3 to 1 cubic meters of dirt per hour with this classic digging implement. After 12 hours of backbreaking labor, you’ll probably have dug a hole that’s deep enough for you to stand up to shoulder height, and wide enough for you to lie down in.

Building a reliable lava moat is all about proper heat management.

With all of your newfound pirate treasure, you’ll probably want to upgrade your lifestyle. But that’s going to make your home a target for burglars. Just to be safe, you might want to dig a moat. Better yet, how about a lava moat?

You already know how to dig, so let’s focus on making lava. All you need are some rocks and heat. Depending on the rocks you use, you’ll need to warm them up to at least 800 degrees celsius to get them to melt. And if you want your lava to glow bright orange during the daytime, you’ll have to crank up the temperature to 1,000 degrees. Let’s split the difference and aim for a modest 900 degrees.

With enough creativity and initiative, you can generate electricity on Mars without using Earth-derived energy sources.

Sure, you could just sit back and relax in your Fiji water-filled swimming pool, enjoying a lavish, pirate treasure-funded lifestyle in the safety of your lava moat. But if you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably an adventurous type who wants to see new places and do new things.

That brings us to our next task – living off the grid on Mars.

If you’re persistent, you can travel faster than the speed of light – almost.

At this point, you might be feeling ready for a real adventure – so why not aim for the stars? To reach them in a reasonable amount of time, you’ll want to travel faster than the speed of light. Now, strictly speaking, that’s impossible, but there’s a clever little hack by which you can achieve a similar effect.

To begin with, you need to build a spaceship that can continually accelerate at 1g. That means it gains speed at the same rate as objects are accelerated downward by Earth’s gravity – approximately 9.8 meters per second. Real-life rockets and roller coasters can accelerate this quickly, so it’s definitely doable. Faster accelerations are possible, but they’re very uncomfortable because the human body can’t handle them. So, for practical purposes, 1g is the limit at which we can accelerate for prolonged periods.

With a little knowledge of history and science, you can tell when someone was born without asking.

After traveling 10 trillion years into the future in just 30 years of subjective time, you might be wondering, “How old does that make me?” That brings us to our next, more down to earth question. How can you find out someone’s age?

Yes, you could just ask them, but there are other, more creative methods you can use. As history unfolds, the world around us is constantly changing. Some of those changes leave lasting marks on our bodies. If you know what to look for, you can use those marks to determine when people were born.

Don’t let a lack of charisma, vision, competency or work ethic prevent you from winning political office.

Having done everything from crash-landing an airplane to (sort of) breaking the speed of light barrier, you’re probably pretty famous by now. Perhaps it's time to consider a career in politics. That brings us to our final question. How do you win an election?

You could do it the way you’re “supposed” to, by persuading voters to support you as a candidate. But that usually requires having a likable personality, a compelling vision of the future, a sharp set of political skills and a willingness to do the hard work of campaigning.

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What is How To about?

How To (2019) is an intentionally impractical, lighthearted guide to accomplishing a wide variety of tasks in extremely outlandish but plausible ways. Drawing from science, math and history, and combining them with a unique sense of humor, How To takes you on an amusing journey through some of reality’s most bizarre possibilities.

How To Review

How To (2019) by Randall Munroe is a fascinating book that explores seemingly impossible scenarios and breaks them down into hilarious, yet scientifically accurate explanations. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Intelligently humorous: Munroe's wit and clever illustrations make complex topics easy to understand and enjoyable to read.
Eye-opening experiments: The book provides curious readers with fun and thought-provoking experiments that challenge conventional wisdom.
In-depth explanations: Munroe's meticulous research and thorough explanations ensure that readers gain a deep understanding of each topic, no matter how absurd it may seem.

Who should read How To?

Science geeks looking for scientifically-rigorous amusement
Tech mavens ready to push technology to the limits
Anyone who enjoys offbeat comedy

About the Author

Randall Munroe is the author of the popular webcomic xkcd and two New York Times best-selling books – What If? and Thing Explainer. He is a former NASA roboticist who left the agency in 2006 to pursue a full-time career drawing comics.

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