Randall Monroe Interviewed

The An inspiration for this blog. Yes, I know that's
not the point. We're talking emotional reasons.

Randall Monroe -- what can I say? The guy is fantastic. His webcomic, xkcd, is one of the great things on the internet and one of the great comics of all time ... really. What if?, his new web discussions and analysis of odd questions answered in light of science!, is witty and smart and provides great insight into how to think about problems. The guy seems humane and smart.

Anyway, there's an excellent interview with him published a few days ago at The Atlantic.

The Atlantic:  So, given the challenges of creating fresh content -- and I know you get this all the time, but I have to ask -- how do you actually come up with new ideas? Especially over such a long stretch of time?

Randall Monroe:  I think, if anything, it's noticing the things that make me laugh and grabbing onto them and figuring out how to write them down. There are definitely times -- and I think this is pretty common among cartoonists -- where you spend an entire day trying to think of an idea, and you're like, "I give up." And then you go and take a shower or run an errand, and halfway there you get an idea.

It's people like this who make me feel both hopeful and inferior.