Thing Explainer by Randall Munroe

What it is about

If you are wondering what a Food-Heating Radio Boxes (Microwaves) or The big flat rocks we live on (Tectonic Plates) are, you are in for a treat with this book. This is a thoroughly enjoyable book that uses the 1000 most common words in the English language to describe, sometimes in great detail, very complex concepts in Science, Technology and other areas. Randall Munroe, author also of the xkcd comic site, also creates incredibly clear sketches of the things it describes. It defies description (at least by mere post writers like me) how the book bridges the complexity of the things it describes with the very simple, down to rudimentary vocabulary it uses, you have to look at it by yourself. As a sample to wet your appetite, look at the description of the Space Car for the Red World

Why it changed my thinking

I read this book when I was in the middle of going through the specification of a complex automation system that used very specialized lingo (jargon) from the industry and was taking me forever to decipher. Looking at it and reading it gave me the conviction that if you cannot explain something in simple terms, you don't really know it. At the time I was leading Product Management in a large company and I asked all my team to read it and keep it in their reference shelf anytime they were writing an specification. I think it should be mandatory reading for anybody in a Product Management career.

Where to get it