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XKCD Author's Unpublished Book Has Already Become a Best-Seller
destinyland writes "Wednesday the geeky cartoonist behind XKCD announced that he'd publish a new book answering hypothetical science questions in September. And within 24 hours, his as-yet-unpublished work had become Amazon's #2 best-selling book. 'Ironically, this book is titled What If?,' jokes one blogger, noting it resembles an XKCD comic where 'In our yet-to-happen future, this book decides to travel backwards through time, stopping off in March of 2014 to inform Amazon's best-seller list that yes, in our coming timeline this book will be widely read...' Randall Munroe's new book will be collecting his favorite 'What If...' questions, but will also contain his never-before published answers to some questions that he'd found 'particularly neat.'"
http://xkcd.com/1102/
How many dead tree books does Amazon sell now?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
That's the comic, not What If? - which is all about things like how much power you'd need to illuminate the shadow of the moon or what happens to the Earth's geography if you drain the oceans of water.
I'm not smart enough for some of the XKCD strips...
I wished he scientifically answered the following hypothetical questions:
1. What if patents were abolished.
2. What if copyright were abolished.
3. What if programmers ran Congress.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
You about done being bitter about somebody else's success?
I write professional videogame reviews! http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/
This one doesn't even try to hide it. It's a literal freaking advertisement.
I would love to hear how that was supposed to work. Were human beings programmed to irrationally love things created by people called Randall Munroe, or are you arguing that he owns some sort of mind-control ray?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
The True Scotsman called, he wants you to know that you're a terrible human being.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
You're right: you don't get it. But don't worry about it.
/. )
Is XKCD overhyped and overrated? Sure it is... like pretty much everything else with a certain level of popularity in the geek crowd. Even so, I often find XKCD funny, sometimes thought-provoking or profound, and generally interesting. And it's often applicable to everyday situations (hence the many "oblig XKCD" references here on
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
For productivity reasons, you should have constructed your critic without details, so you could reuse the reply in many other cases.
For example: "I don't like it. Therefore, it's stupid. And people who like it are stupid too."
Remember kids, don't fail, or you'll have to spend your time complaining about people who didn't.
The fact that it was badly-drawn (*) and not actually that clever in itself- so much as giving its oft-maligned (**) target audience an excuse to feel superior to others- didn't seem to matter.
As I once commented elsewhere:-
Compare that to User Friendly. Aside from its "moderately-promising 14-year-old still showing too much influence from the Teach-Yourself-Cartooning book" drawing style, User Friendly has always relied on its geek-friendly subject matter and viewpoints to flatter the audience and obscure the fact that it's neither creative nor funny.
Here's a good example:-
http://ars.userfriendly.org/ca...
There's nothing creative about this. The "news" was a real-life item reported in many tech outlets about a year back. The strip itself is just a lazy excuse to let the audience laugh again at that story- it adds nothing to it except an audience-pandering but uncreative aside.
xkcd has a long way to go before it gets *that* lazy.
(*) XKCD isn't exactly detailed in the artwork stakes either, but that comes across as an intentional style, whereas User Friendly just looks like a wannabe of better-looking cartoons.
(**) This is before it was (allegedly) cool to be a geek.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Just about anything good eventually becomes over-hyped.
Actually I don't think anything is described as exactly as good or as bad as it actually is. People either rain praise on something they like, or trash talk something they don't, and it's usually overdone.
Personally, I like xkcd. Yes, it's not consistently ground shattering. The average day to day comic tends to range somewhere from meh to mild chuckle. But for something you get 3 days a week, that's actually pretty damn good.
Then occasionally he goes all out and actually _does_ build something that lives up to hype, which then of course itself gets overhyped like everything else, so he really can't win.
You've been hitting the "of beta" button. That means you become one with beta. Try something else if you want a different effect.
"Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get" - Jerry Avins
So why don't you?
Unless he is not quite so talentless as you make out?
The What-If stuff is well written, informative and funny. It may even be accurate (I'm not smart enough to judge this). His comics are hit and miss (as are every body elses so...), but you know what they are popular and that is not down to his name, it is down to the fact the struck a cord with the readership.
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.
User Friendly feels extremely dated now, but that's not because it was a bad comic back then, but because it was trying to capture the geek mindset of the time. It's a bit like Dilbert, a comic that only really makes sense when you've spent enough time in a megacorp's big cubicle farm. The main difference is that User Friendly came from an upbeat world that, frankly, does not exist anymore, so today it just can't be funny.
Exactly, he's just trading on his name. He would never have gained that many readers if he hadn't already been famous for... er... I'll get back to you.
Will that work if I change my name to Randall Munroe? Why is his name special?
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
Oh my god, it's you! Hey everyone, it's the guy whose opinion is also objectively true!
I've got a list of questions I've been saving for you, now where did I put it...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Wednesday the geeky cartoonist behind XKCD
I thought his name was Randall.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Says an even bigger ASSHOLE
Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
Conjecture: everything that has been told by Xkcd has already been said at least once by someone on Slashdot prior to it.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
And What If? follows Mythbusters in the sense that once the question is answered, he keeps pushing until something blows up.
No, he actually built a critic to make critiques.
Ladies and gentlemen: it's official. Hipsterism has moved onto webcomics. Detonate the nukes. Perhaps the cockroach culture can do better than we did.
I'm not a big fan of xkcd, but I love the what-if series immensely. It's pretty much the highlight of Tuesdays for me... when I'm not out invading and destroying villages anyway.
Conjecture: everything that has been told by Xkcd has already been said at least once by someone on Slashdot prior to it.
By the number of "obligatory xkcd" posts we see a lot of what is said on Slashdot has already been said on xkcd. .... this could be circular!
Proving once again that "best" does not exist.
If only Slashdot's comment form allowed input of stick-figures, it might be the case that we wouldn't need Xkcd...
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Well, yes, there are some xkcd readers who are pseudointellectual idiots who want to impress each other. But there are also all the other readers.
Exploits of a Mom is probably the funniest thing in a web comic ever... :)
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
We're all Mad here.
I'm Spartacus.
Conjecture: everything that has been told by Xkcd has already been said at least once by someone on Slashdot prior to it.
Simpecture: everything that has been said at least once by someone on Slashdot, Simpsons already did it.
Exactly. He build his brand off being famous for being a Physics undergrad at a small state school in south east Virginia. Yeah, a regular Paris Hilton he is. It is easy to be successful when you have that kind of background. /s
Hell - even I have my off-days when I don't manage to do any earth shattering. I am my biggest fan, but even so, I'm not always amazed at myself.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
If only Slashdot's comment form allowed input of stick-figures, it might be the case that we wouldn't need Xkcd...
------->O
|Fuck| \|/
| You | |
------ / \
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Yes, it is called "having fun with it". If he didn't, it would be pretty boring.
I was pretty hooked after reading the first one I ever saw, which was about what would happen if a pitcher could throw a baseball at a signficant fraction of the speed of light. I thought it was pretty hilarious to see see the breakdown.
A simple "a huge explosion destroying the ball park and leaving a crater" would have answered the question, but, it wouldn't be very much fun, and wouldn't have anyone looking to buy his book.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
That is some pretty wide open conjecture. I have personally been reading and commenting on slashdot for more than a decade and I have skipped or missed entire articles full of comments. Slashdot has contained comments on everything from Natalie Portman to Hot Grits.
Conjecture: Most everything said on slashdot today has already been said by someone on Slashdot prior to it.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Why is his name special?
Because it's just like Elbereth except of scaring monsters away, it attracts nerds instead.
The only problem here is finding a tablet that you can stand on without destroying it in the process. Maybe one per foot? (Or do I just need to lose weight?)
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Currently at #1: Rush Limbaugh's self-insert U.S. history fanfic.
I swear to you I am not making this up.
Perhaps Randall should pass on publicizing this particular honor.
Visit the
Shep did this even one better back in the 50s.
Slashdot has contained comments on everything from Natalie Portman to Hot Grits.
As I understand it, there is nothing between Natalie Portman and Hot Grits. Kinda like Brooke Shields and her Calvins.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
You swear a lot for someone with such a tiny head...
no, I'm Spartacus
I'm Spartacus.
no, I'm Spartacus
We are Spartacus? What happend to Legion?
which conveniently leads to my main worry about the book - how's he going to get image hovertext on paper?
I'm Spartacus, and so is my wife
People with tiny heads tend to swear a lot.
There sure are a lot of jealous people on /. these days :(
Which is why I pre-ordered the book, to get it while it's still good.
I love the early Mythbusters, compared to them the recent ones are lame. Everything has its time and when it's done, then it's done.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
"What If" and "Frozen (Two-Disc Blu-ray / DVD + Digital Copy)". Makes sense. I guess. They are both.... I mean the connection is..... Nope. I got nothing.
which I question.... by the time the first matter which used to be the ball reaches the batter, the ball no longer conforms to the definition of a baseball by the rules of the game. I think the pitcher would be guilty of illegally modifying the ball.
As such, according to a quick review, looks like the pitcher should be given a warning, and the pitch called as a ball.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Well, the existentialism of this variant of it is rather tough!
http://garfieldminusgarfield.n...
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
As both a Dilbert and XKCD fan, I appricaite them both for different reasons.
DIlbert often highlights the funny / depressing work side of my life. (Control systems engineer) e.g. http://dilbert.com/strips/comi... recienlt just about made me choke on my coffee.
Where as XKCD appeals to my geeky nature, though also applicable to work situations sometimes e.g. https://xkcd.com/927/ but there are so many others that come up in ever day life for those of us that are geeky
I presume you tried to use ascii art to make a stick figure.
However, using the fonts that are installed on my computer, that actually looks horrible.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
It looks terrible either way.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust