Thing Explainer

What Hacker News says

1. NzenOct 2025
   If you want to see examples of this in practice, I recommend reading Randall Monroe's Thing Explainer [0] or some simple wikipedia articles [1].

   [0] https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/

   [1] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit (versus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit)

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2. stop50Sep 2023
   How to, what if? 1+2 and thing explainer all by Randall munroe. The latter one is the only one i can recommend for younger kids, it has only 1000 different words.
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3. lekeNov 2022
   I like the idea of a limited vocabulary and word building from there, but I think TP is way too extreme. Randall Munroe wrote a book called "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words". In the back of the book, he lists the 1000 words he used to write it. Something like that would be suitable IMHO.
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4. a_square_pegApr 2022
   Very true. This is why I think 'Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words' (Randall Munroe) is so brilliant. I think being able to communicate at the level your audience is an under-appreciated skill.
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5. tucifJul 2021
   Looking for "coffee table books" from which you can learn something by reading just a couple of pages, optionally with some imagery.

   Something in the lines of: Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe (xkcd), The secret lives of color by Kassia St.Clair.

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6. squeaky-cleanAug 2020
   "Thing Explainer" and "What If" are my current coffee table books actually, hahaha, so spot on with the recommendation. I want a second copy of Thing Explainer because my friends have flipped through it so much.
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