There is no one who isn’t the audience for this book. If you’re interested in science, there’s a lot of it in here. If you don’t know much science, you can skip some of the more technical elements of the book and just get the high level takeaways. If you’re scientifically inclined, you can luxuriate in all the math that Munroe casually throws into his answers.
We’d all be better off if we took scientific advice when trying to solve our day to day problems, instead of the hodgepodge of “someone once told me this works” or “I tried this last time and it seemed to work” or my favorite “I tried this last time, it did not work, but maybe this time???” That being said, perhaps this isn’t the sort of scientific advice that you want to be using.
Look, this is a funny book (and this review has been a bit of a block in my overall flow, so excuse my poetic waxing so I can finally close this off and move on). I think you can read it as just that but as someone who once upon a time called herself an engineer, reading these books fills me with an odd sense of belonging and sadness. I get the type of thinking that leads Monroe and his audience down the funny rabbit holes (to see how to dig a rabbit hole, see this book). It’s the same sort of thing that runs through my mind when I approach whatever intractable issues come my way. But there’s always a twinge of sadness when I fall short of being able to do the same math and fundamental calculations that underpin his work. I knew how to, at one point, but it’s been a while since then and it’s leaked out of my brain.
I don’t think there’s any attempt to purposefully lose the reader or seem too smart for them! To be clear. I think this is a well written book that will appeal to all levels. Nevertheless, it’s a bit of jealousy that I remember when I think back to this book 😉
