Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words

Bottom line: this is a truly enjoyable book that ultimately succeeds in shedding light on complex things in the world that we may not have paused to consider (submarines, ICBMs and various space travel vehicles) in depth. This lack of consideration may variously result from the inherent complexity of some things (nuclear power plants) or their ubiquity (pens, pencils, roads and bridges).Randall Munroe compiled his own list of the 1000 most common words (presumably in American English) to use as the lexicon to explain a bunch a stuff. The illustrations are wonderful; crisp line drawings that vary in detail from the conceptual (human organs generally as bags) to the highly detailed. In some cases they are complete visual metaphors, presumably because the limitations in available vocabulary led to limitations in the accompanying picture.This book contains content from my own professional background, so I was delighted to see content pulled from the worlds of naval weapons, space systems and modern information technology. Because of this, I can confirm that even with limited vocabulary, he gets those things explained correctly.Anybody who has worked as technical writer trying to glean information from subject matter experts for later use in a user guide or other materials designed for non-experts will appreciate what Munroe has done here. Anybody who has ever prepared materials for consumption by elected or appointed government officials will also totally appreciate the challenge he takes on.Interspersed throughout --in the same simple language-- are short comments that are sometimes insightful, sometimes funny, and they will be instantly familiar to readers of his xkcd web comic.However, don't read this in one sitting. You might find yourself haunted by this thought: "Randall, you tell us in the intro that eventually you picked your own 1000 words based on a review of multiple lists. The addition (or substitution) of 50 to 100 more could have really taken moved some of the explanations from the highly metaphorical to the more concrete (to his credit, the "things" are "correctly" named in the table of contents).Great fun for the alpha geeks and curious kids in your life...and just in time for holiday shopping.

"Thing Explainer" is such an awesome, fun and original book that is educational for people of all ages. I wasn't familiar with the book until I saw it reviewed on Bill Gates blog (he's very favorable) and wound up pre-ordering it. The idea of explaining complex things using only the 1,000 most common words in English was super intriguing. I also have three children, 16, 13 and 11, and was interested in what they thought as well as learning how Munroe's technique might help me better communicate complex subjects, not necessarily science related, but also things like history, current events, etc. My oldest son happened to open the box when it arrived and was surprised since he had separately heard about the book and didn't know I ordered it. He would up commandeering it for a couple of days and went through it completely before returning it to me with the line "it's brilliant'.I wound up going through it randomly and think the combination of the language simplicity as well as illustration style along with the physical size make it a must have for any curious mind. Sure, Munroe's choice of 1,000 words is arbitrary, but the forced use of everyday and mundane words is what enables this book to appeal to such a broad variety of people, ages and intellect, while simultaneously educating and entertaining. And as I mentioned, it also provides a valuable teaching technique to help one communicate complicated things to others in ways that make them more interesting and understandable.I subsequently put the book on a coffee table and quite a few folks with varied backgrounds have picked it up, thumbed through it and smiled as one of the "things" motivated them to stop, engage and learn. I'd highly recommend the physical edition as I intentionally bought it vs. a digital copy because of the use of illustrations and for the ability to leave it out and share, a decision I'm super happy about.

This book shows you that understanding how something works and knowing its name are different. In doing so, it makes you consider when and why it's actually important to use a special name for some things, and think harder about what your words are really telling people. The point of this book is not to explain things as well and as quickly as possible. It's to help you use your thinking bag in a different way than you do every day. That's why it's so much fun to read.I'm a teacher at a school for people who already know a lot, and who are very good at what they do. (I teach them about power for our lights and machines.) We use big words and special names all the time. But I sometimes ask my students to try explaining complicated stuff using only simple words, because when you do that, you find out whether you really understand it. It forces you to ask, what is the most important idea here? I wish more teachers did this.Putting ideas into simple words can also help you recognize how different words carry meaning other than just telling you what something is. This is especially true for things that people often have strong feelings about, like the laws of the land, or our body parts for making new people, or machines for burning cities. Special words can quietly suggest if something is a good or a bad idea, or cover up bad feelings. Playing the game of using only simple words can help you see things more clearly for what they actually are, and say just what you mean. So, this book shows us a way to pay special attention to how our own thinking bag works. And I think that's really, really cool.