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KSP and 'Thing Explainer.'

BagelRabbit

By BagelRabbit
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BagelRabbit

BagelRabbit

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Okay, just a quick post here.

Randall Munroe, the guy who does xkcd, recently released a book called Thing Explainer. I haven't checked it out yet, but it's basically a book in which he explains complex things using the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language.

...guess where he got the idea?

I don't know whether others have discussed this, as Munroe has probably told this story in other places as well. But I just got my latest copy of the magazine New Scientist, where I found the following:

Douglas Heaven: "How did you get the idea of explaining complex things using only the 1,000 most common words?"
Munroe: "The idea actually grew out of an xkcd comic I did. I was playing a computer game in which you have to design rockets and successfully launch them. My spaceships would always blow up, so every launch I needed to find a new name. I quickly got tired of giving them majestic names like 'The Falcon' and I started giving them stupid names like 'The Flying Space Boat.' The dumbest thing I could come up with was 'Up Goer.' Then I started thinking, 'Hey, what if I did a whole diagram where I labelled everything using really dumb words?'"

Given the amount of times Randall mentioned KSP in other xkcd strips, I really doubt that "computer game" is anything other than the one we know and love.

So to make a long story short, the KSP team unintentionally inspired an entire book that's now on the New York Times bestseller list. My friends, I have no words to describe how awesome this is.

That is all.

-Upsilon

[EDIT 1 (given, this came after the edit below. I'm just putting it here for the sake of formatting.)

Forumer fourfa linked an absolutely fantastic article which confirms that the Up Goer Five idea came from KSP! You can find it here:  http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2015/12/a-brief-chat-with-xkcds-randall-munroe-the-thing-explainer-explainer/ ...Thanks, fourfa!]

[EDIT 1.1: r4pt0r had a great idea. Presenting the original Up-Goer Five post. Caution: it's a bit of a large image...]

up_goer_five.png

 

Edited by UpsilonAerospace
Weird formatting!
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Hobbes Novakoff

Hobbes Novakoff

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That's awesome. I know a bunch of people on this forum are xkcd fans. 

By the way, you should check out the book. It's great. For instance, the preamble of the US Constitution (or as he calls it, the US's Laws of the Land):

Quote

BEFORE WE START:

Hi, we're the people in these little countries called "states," and we want to get together into a country. We want to make everything nice and quiet, keep anyone from hurting us, and make sure our kids will be free. Here are its laws:

 

 

11 minutes ago, regex said:

OMG SOMEONE FAMOUS IN GEEK CIRCLES PLAYS KSP I AM TOTALLY SURPRISED BY THIS INFORMATION

It's not that. It was well known that Randall plays KSP, as evidenced by this comic (and this one). It's that KSP inspired him to make a New York Times best-seller.

Say, where'd your avatar go?

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r4pt0r

r4pt0r

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Actually, someone should post his up-goer, I've seen the blueprint on here before. tis a good laugh.

EDIT: this is the internet, I just googled it. I can be so lazy sometimes....

[image]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/up_goer_five.png[/image]

How in the hell do you post non imgur images here?

EDIT2: found it     
up_goer_five.png

 

Edited by r4pt0r
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BagelRabbit

BagelRabbit

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1 hour ago, regex said:

OMG SOMEONE FAMOUS IN GEEK CIRCLES PLAYS KSP I AM TOTALLY SURPRISED BY THIS INFORMATION

Before we get any further, regex, Hobbes Novakoff was absolutely correct. I've read most of the xkcd strips in existence, and he mentions KSP by name at least five separate times. Rather, I'm happy that his book was inspired by KSP.

Without passing judgement, it would have been nice if you had read my entire post before replying. I'll also take this opportunity to point out that just because this forum has "upgraded" doesn't mean that you should make all-caps posts.

1 hour ago, Hobbes Novakoff said:

That's awesome. I know a bunch of people on this forum are xkcd fans. 

By the way, you should check out the book. It's great. For instance, the preamble of the US Constitution (or as he calls it, the US's Laws of the Land):

 

It's not that. It was well known that Randall plays KSP, as evidenced by this comic (and this one). It's that KSP inspired him to make a New York Times best-seller.

Say, where'd your avatar go?

Very neat! I'll probably check the book out of the library when it becomes available, as I am poor and libraries are wonderful places.

Thanks for the sneak peek, and also for grasping the gist of my post!

1 hour ago, r4pt0r said:

Actually, someone should post his up-goer, I've seen the blueprint on here before. tis a good laugh.

EDIT: this is the internet, I just googled it. I can be so lazy sometimes....
[snip]

Thanks for posting that! I might want to add it to the OP, might I not?

...and I'll end this post with the two KSP comics done by Munroe, mentioned by Hobbes, and now embedded by me:

orbital_mechanics.png

six_words.png

Cool stuff.

-Upsilon

Edited by UpsilonAerospace
Formatting, and stuff.
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razark

razark

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1 hour ago, Hobbes Novakoff said:

It was well known that Randall plays KSP, as evidenced by this comic (and this one).

Don't forget https://xkcd.com/1106/

That's the first time I can remember him mentioning KSP.

 

He's doing a book tour for it.  I'm planning on taking a long lunch on Monday to see him at Space Center Houston.

Edited by razark
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Archgeek

Archgeek

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Posted

So the upshot here is that it is here shown that Harv and friends have had an even more positive effect on reality then we were before aware -- in this case, an awesome book that's useful for teaching the general meaning of complex things in simple words exists because a couple of old friends who used to make cobled-together rockets decided to make a video game.

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5 hours ago, UpsilonAerospace said:

Before we get any further, regex, Hobbes Novakoff was absolutely correct. I've read most of the xkcd strips in existence, and he mentions KSP by name at least five separate times. Rather, I'm happy that his book was inspired by KSP.

Without passing judgement, it would have been nice if you had read my entire post before replying. I'll also take this opportunity to point out that just because this forum has "upgraded" doesn't mean that you should make all-caps posts.

Very neat! I'll probably check the book out of the library when it becomes available, as I am poor and libraries are wonderful places.

Thanks for the sneak peek, and also for grasping the gist of my post!

Thanks for posting that! I might want to add it to the OP, might I not?

...and I'll end this post with the two KSP comics done by Munroe, mentioned by Hobbes, and now embedded by me:

orbital_mechanics.png

six_words.png

Cool stuff.

-Upsilon

I love when he mentions KSP.

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NecroBones

NecroBones

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I recently received my copy of Thing Explainer. I haven't had a chance to really look through it yet, but I'm hoping there's a lot of really awesome science and space stuff in there.

 

The Up-Goer 5 is just classic. I bought the poster and hung it in my cube at work.... and hilariously most people don't even notice that there's anything strange about it, since they just see a blueprint and don't read the text. ;)

 

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Hobbes Novakoff

Hobbes Novakoff

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5 hours ago, NecroBones said:

The Up-Goer 5 is just classic. I bought the poster and hung it in my cube at work.... and hilariously most people don't even notice that there's anything strange about it, since they just see a blueprint and don't read the text. ;)

BTW, at the back of the book you will find a poster featuring a blueprint of a Sky Toucher. I'm letting you know because it took me two days to notice it.

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mhoram

mhoram

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3 hours ago, BLUESTREAK said:

What I like about this is that the borrowed phrase "you will not go to space today" - which has undeniably become part of the KSP vernacular - was therefore technically inspired by KSP in the first place...!

The original up goer 5 comic is from November 2012 and the "You Will Not Go To Space Today" thread is from April 2013, so it is rather the other way round and the phrase came from XKCD to KSP.

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razark

razark

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1 hour ago, mhoram said:

The original up goer 5 comic is from November 2012 and the "You Will Not Go To Space Today" thread is from April 2013, so it is rather the other way round and the phrase came from XKCD to KSP.

He was saying that since the xkcd comic was inspired by KSP, the phrase may not have come directly from KSP, KSP is the ultimate source of the idea.

I now have a signed copy of Thing Explainer.

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