[ExI] Useless Self-Help Guide Offers Ludicrous Solutions to Everyday Problems

[John Grigg]

"Have you ever wondered how to predict the weather, land an airplane onto a
moving train, or knock a drone out of the sky with sports equipment?
Randall Munroe, creator of the popular science webcomic xkcd, has a new
book that presents outrageous solutions for a broad range of problems, from
the mundane to the unusual.

In "How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems"
(Penguin Random House, 2019), Munroe tackles challenges that are often a
part of everyday life. He shared highlights from the book with a rapt
audience at New York Comic Con on Oct. 3.

Be forewarned: None of his suggestions is easy — in fact, they're about as
convoluted and complicated as possible. Let's say you want *to cross a
river* <https://www.livescience.com/20961-olympic-torch-zipline.html>,
which you could accomplish by simply swimming across. Munroe offers
interesting but less practical options: jumping the river in a car;
freezing the water or boiling it away; and flying from bank to bank on a
string of kites. And he uses science to explain how each of these options
might be possible (if not necessarily practical).

"I'm one of those people who always comes up with impractical solutions to
things — but usually, I'm not trying to come up with an impractical
solution," Munroe told Live Science. Rather, he's looking for timesavers
for tasks that are boring and repetitive "something that would take a
little while now to get set up, but once I did it could actually save me
time in the long run," he explained.

"And whenever I find myself thinking 'save me time in the long run,' I know
I'm about to do something that will definitely take up more time than it
could possibly save," he said."

A must have book!  :  )
https://www.livescience.com/how-to-randall-munroe.html
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