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The Geek Guide to Life: Science’s Solutions to Life’s Little Problems
While geeks’ obsessive desire for data makes them constant curators of useless information, it also drives them to great lengths to find the solutions to everyday problems. What are the moves that will impress a hot date on the dance floor? Is there an optimum angle for skipping a stone? The Geek Guide to Life reveals the geeky secrets to living smarter, offering scientifically sourced advice for dealing with everything life throws at you. Presented with top tips, infographics, and a sense of humor, the Geek Guide appeals not just to Star Trek junkies and computer nerds but to anyone seeking answers to some of life’s eternal questions.
- GenresNonfiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published April 17, 2018
3 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Colin Stuart
65 books27 followersColin Stuart is a renowned astronomy speaker and best-selling author. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a 2014 runner-up for the European Astronomy Journalism Prize. He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 4, 2017
There's no reason at all why good popular science should be heavy and loaded with leading edge theory. I've a lot of time for fun and/or practical science facts type books, which The Geek Guide to Life promises to be - the subtitle tells us its about 'science's solutions to life's little problems' with examples such as 'how to boil the perfect egg' and 'how to rock at rock, paper, scissors.'
The text by Colin Stuart and Mun Keat Looi does a solid job of covering a whole range of questions in two or four page spreads. Sometimes the titles of the articles overreach themselves - for example, there is one headed 'How to cure an hangover' which half way through, in response to 'But, I hear you cry, how do I get rid of my hangover?' remarks 'Sadly, science doesn't have a clear answer to that question.' Inevitably, that headline feels a bit overblown at this point.
I was less enthusiastic about the illustrations - for no obvious reason other than the word 'geek' in the title of the book, the illustrator decided to provide us with highly pixellated illustrations as if they were being rendered in a 1980s video game. This probably seemed a good idea at the time... but makes for pretty poor graphics. Sometimes also there seemed to be limited coordination between the text and graphics. So, for instance, in a section labelled 'What's the best way to commute to work' the graphic is a bar chart showing relatively happiness of various commute times compared with a 1 to 15 minute travel time. There are several interesting features. People seem happier with a 31-45 minute commute that 16-30 minutes - and by far the best are working from home (not surprising) and a 3 hour or more commute (more surprising). None of this is referenced in the text, which just said the contradictory 'the longer someone's commute, the lower their level of life satisfaction.' Similarly in the 'How to Kick Ass at Monopoly' article, the text refers to the UK square names, while the illustration of the board shows the US names.
Having said that, I found the section on games (how to do better at the likes of Monopoly and Rock, Paper, Scissors) was probably the most fun part of the book. One of the problems of the more serious parts is that the short article approach is not always capable of providing effective guidance. So, if we look at 'how to save money at the supermarket' it's all about avoiding impulse buys and not buying stuff you don't need right now. The trouble is, if this is your sole tactic and you buy a product regularly with a long shelf life that is sometimes a lot cheaper than at other times, you will spend far more than if you buy extra when it is on sale.
Overall, there's no doubt the book is fun, but it does feel more than a little shallow. To be honest, I would rather Stuart and Looi had been allowed to write twice as much text and we lost the graphics. Nevertheless there were some genuine take home points here - and I expect to win at Monopoly next time I play, or I will be asking for my money back.
The text by Colin Stuart and Mun Keat Looi does a solid job of covering a whole range of questions in two or four page spreads. Sometimes the titles of the articles overreach themselves - for example, there is one headed 'How to cure an hangover' which half way through, in response to 'But, I hear you cry, how do I get rid of my hangover?' remarks 'Sadly, science doesn't have a clear answer to that question.' Inevitably, that headline feels a bit overblown at this point.
I was less enthusiastic about the illustrations - for no obvious reason other than the word 'geek' in the title of the book, the illustrator decided to provide us with highly pixellated illustrations as if they were being rendered in a 1980s video game. This probably seemed a good idea at the time... but makes for pretty poor graphics. Sometimes also there seemed to be limited coordination between the text and graphics. So, for instance, in a section labelled 'What's the best way to commute to work' the graphic is a bar chart showing relatively happiness of various commute times compared with a 1 to 15 minute travel time. There are several interesting features. People seem happier with a 31-45 minute commute that 16-30 minutes - and by far the best are working from home (not surprising) and a 3 hour or more commute (more surprising). None of this is referenced in the text, which just said the contradictory 'the longer someone's commute, the lower their level of life satisfaction.' Similarly in the 'How to Kick Ass at Monopoly' article, the text refers to the UK square names, while the illustration of the board shows the US names.
Having said that, I found the section on games (how to do better at the likes of Monopoly and Rock, Paper, Scissors) was probably the most fun part of the book. One of the problems of the more serious parts is that the short article approach is not always capable of providing effective guidance. So, if we look at 'how to save money at the supermarket' it's all about avoiding impulse buys and not buying stuff you don't need right now. The trouble is, if this is your sole tactic and you buy a product regularly with a long shelf life that is sometimes a lot cheaper than at other times, you will spend far more than if you buy extra when it is on sale.
Overall, there's no doubt the book is fun, but it does feel more than a little shallow. To be honest, I would rather Stuart and Looi had been allowed to write twice as much text and we lost the graphics. Nevertheless there were some genuine take home points here - and I expect to win at Monopoly next time I play, or I will be asking for my money back.
August 14, 2024
I just read this book that was published in 2016 and I find a few psychology "researches" quoted by the authors as being identified to be in "replication crisis"; Amy Cuddy's Power Pose is one such controversial research. I could not help but wonder whether or not the authors of this book, during their writing of this book, were aware of the "replication crisis" that came out in around the year 2012 and be careful in selecting the researches they see as interesting AND useful in a realistic way.
Several other researches in this book were mentioned in other behavioral science books I read before this one which make this book a late comer for me. For readers who never heard about any of the research studies quoted in this book, they may learn some useful tips, along with those few dubious ones.
One bad design of this book is the background of the text on some pages makes it hard for me to read (I an elderly reader). This is typical of any such books with "overdesign" that tries to signify their geekiness that I have read! I ask all book designers to always use only white background for all text areas. You can use colors on other parts of the book to display geekiness. Leave the text area alone on white!
Some good books that quote many scientific researches but do not go into any dubious : Science for Life: A manual for better living and NEW-The Diet Myth.
Several other researches in this book were mentioned in other behavioral science books I read before this one which make this book a late comer for me. For readers who never heard about any of the research studies quoted in this book, they may learn some useful tips, along with those few dubious ones.
One bad design of this book is the background of the text on some pages makes it hard for me to read (I an elderly reader). This is typical of any such books with "overdesign" that tries to signify their geekiness that I have read! I ask all book designers to always use only white background for all text areas. You can use colors on other parts of the book to display geekiness. Leave the text area alone on white!
Some good books that quote many scientific researches but do not go into any dubious : Science for Life: A manual for better living and NEW-The Diet Myth.
January 17, 2018
Got this as a stocking filler at christmas, and it falls into the exact sort of category of books I like to read around the festive season. Short, factual packets that are mildly diverting. Any avid viewer of QI will already know about most of these things. The art style is annoying side of quirky. Basically it came down as mildly diverting but mediocre.
December 23, 2023
Zbiór porad życiowych z uzasadnieniem naukowym, np gdzie najlepiej usiąść w kinie, jak zapobiegać plątaniu się słuchawek czy jak najlepiej wydobyć ketchup z butelki. Niewiele wniosła do mojego życia, ale ogółem ciekawa i dobrze się czytało przed snem.
June 28, 2018
Pleasant to dip into but did not fully catch the imagination. Interesting idea and, for the right kind of mind, the right kind of book.
September 30, 2018
I will surely re-read it again if I lost about how to live well 😂 Super knowledgeable in affordable way..
February 4, 2019
useful tips and interesting points.
November 26, 2021
Interesting, but very goal-directed and materialistic. I'm getting too old for such games.
February 4, 2022
Some fun factoids with scientific backing. Had a problem reading with colors and layout at times.
February 20, 2019
This book contains some great tips and tricks regarding day-to-day life problems. The researches are legit, the humour is subtle and the illustrations are well-drawn. As a striving-to-be-a-geek human being, I recommend this book to be added to your bookshelf.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews