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As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
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When I was very little, I had a book that showed some people building a house, so the first thing I can remember wanting to be is a housebuilder. A little later, I started reading comics, and I actually remember thinking that it would be really neat to be a cartoonist. But then I realised that I only knew how to draw stick figures, so I abandoned that idea 鈥� only to stumble on it by accident a decade or two later.
Explain what you do in one easy paragraph.
I draw comics and post them on the internet, where people look at them when they鈥檙e supposed to be working on something. I also write books about cool maths and science.
What do you love most about what you do?
I love learning about weird cool stuff and getting to tell people about it, but my very favourite thing is that I occasionally hear from people who got to know their future partner by sending my comics back and forth to each other.
How has your field of study changed in the time you have been working in it?
I was never a great student overall, and after a few years of feeling frustrated in science class, I remember thinking that I didn鈥檛 want to do science after all. But then I came across a physics textbook and realised that was the kind of science I was excited about.
If you could send a message back to yourself as a kid, what would you say?
I鈥檇 feel a lot of pressure to figure out the most important world event to warn people about. But I鈥檇 probably panic and just write: 鈥淪orry about the paradox I鈥檓 creating right now :(鈥�
What鈥檚 the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
My mom once told me she tries never to make fun of someone for admitting they don鈥檛 know something. I think that鈥檚 a really helpful lesson. If you make fun of people for that, you鈥檙e just teaching them to avoid revealing to you when they鈥檙e learning something and you miss out on getting to show them cool stuff.
What鈥檚 your favourite 鈥楬ow to鈥� from your latest book?
For the chapter 鈥淗ow to Make an Emergency Landing鈥�, I interviewed Chris Hadfield, test pilot and commander of the International Space Station. My plan was to throw increasingly bizarre scenarios at him until he got annoyed, but to my surprise, he answered every question without hesitation. Even better, his answers were all delivered in a very businesslike astronaut voice. It was so much fun listening to him calmly describe how to crawl around on the outside of a plane or land a space shuttle in a drainage ditch as if he had done it a thousand times.
鈥淢y mom told me she tries never to make fun of people for not knowing something鈥�
Do you have an unexpected hobby, and if so, please will you tell us about it?
Every fall, I spend a few days hiking up to mountain lookouts to help count migrating hawks. I was very into the Animorphs series of books as a kid. K.A.Applegate spent a lot of time describing hawks riding thermals. It sounded so nice!
What鈥檚 the best thing you鈥檝e read or seen in the past 12 months?
Gretchen McCulloch鈥檚 book on how the internet shapes language, Because Internet, sheds light on so many things that I鈥檝e noticed but never really understood about how people use text to communicate.
How useful will your skills be after the apocalypse?
I guess it depends whether there are surviving people who have free time and want to hear cool facts about the apocalypse that just happened.
OK, one last thing: tell us something that will blow our minds鈥�
The first nuclear weapon was created closer to the invention of barbed wire than to today.
Randall Munroe is an engineer, author and creator of the web comic xkcd. His latest book, How to: Absurd scientific advice for common real-world problems, is out now
