Being a science lover it is no surprise that he graduated with a physics degree.
He eventually realised that he had a talent for drawing comics - in his talk he explained that in school he would like doodling in his notebook – but he thought that it wouldn’t help much to earn a livelihood. On the 7th of November 2022, I went to Randall Munroe’s fascinating, yet hilarious talk about his new book: What If? 2.įor those of you who do not know him, Randall Munroe is an American cartoonist and author, who enjoyed reading comic strips from an early age. "I just have to wait and see which one I actually get far enough along on, to make into a book.Before the talk at Cambridge Theatre (Image: Raghav Vaidya) "I don't know, I always have a lot of projects sitting around half finished," he said.
So what is next for the author (or "word make person")? "At a certain point the comics just started taking enough of my time and making enough money to make a living off it, so I put robots aside for a while," he said. This is despite having completed a degree in physics and working for NASA in the robotics department.įor some that might be a wild divergence, but for Mr Munroe it was a practical decision once xkcd became popular.
He began drawing the webcomic in 2005, and now makes his living entirely through the strip and associated projects. "I just try to draw about the things I think are funny and interesting and hope that there are people who feel the same way." "I don't worry too much about who's reading it," he said.
The global popularity of his work comes as something of a surprise to Mr Munroe, who admitted he was not very good at market research or pandering to his devoted audience. "It pushes you into finding new ways to say things I had a lot of fun with it," Mr Munroe said.Īnd to make things even more challenging, he even wrote his own software to let him know when he was using a forbidden word. The challenge to explain complicated ideas in simple words was a gratifying one for the author. Using the most frequently used 1,000 words in the English language, The Thing Explainer simplifies topics as diverse as human cells (or "tiny bags of water you are made of" as the book calls them), inventions like aeroplanes ("sky boats") and particle colliders ("big tiny thing hitter"). I just try to draw about the things I think are funny and interesting and hope that there are people who feel the same way.
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