How To

The world's most entertaining yet impractical self-help book comes from the ingenious creator behind the beloved webcomic xkcd, and the enormously successful books What If? and Thing Explainer. For any task you may want to tackle, there exists a correct method, an incorrect one, and a path so unbelievably misguided that no one would ever consider it. How To serves as a guide to this last, humorously disastrous approach, providing impractical advice for undertakings like landing a plane or excavating a hole.Renowned author and cartoonist Randall Munroe humorously describes how to predict weather by scrutinizing the pixels in your Facebook images. He shares unusual methods for determining if you’re a baby boomer or a millennial by examining the radioactivity levels of your teeth. Creative tips include taking a selfie using a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and ensuring punctuality for appointments by obliterating the moon. And when it comes to disposing of this book after finishing it, Munroe suggests whimsical solutions such as dissolving it in the ocean, vaporizing it, using tectonic movement to submerge it into the Earth’s mantle, or even launching it into the sun.By delving into the most convoluted methods for completing simple tasks, Munroe not only complicates matters for himself and his readers. As demonstrated expertly in What If?, he encourages us to explore the most outlandish extensions of possibility. Packed with clever infographics and entertaining illustrations, How To offers a delightfully perplexing way to deepen our understanding of science and technology in our daily lives.