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.

Randall Munroe

Categorized in : You Think Day Trying

Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they are doing. Do things without always knowing how they'll turn out. You're curious and smart and bored, and all you see is the choice between working hard and slacking off. There are so many adventures that you miss because you're waiting to think of a plan. To find them, look for tiny interesting choices. And remember that you are always making up the future as you go.

Randall Munroe

smart motivational life

But I’ve never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations of humans. I see it as a lesson about the limitations of wax as an adhesive.

Randall Munroe

adhesive lessons stories

The universe is probably littered with the one-planet graves of cultures which made the sensible economic decision that there's no good reason to go into space-each discovered, studied, and remembered by the ones who made the irrational decision.

Randall Munroe

space decision culture

I never trust anyone who's more excited about success than about doing the thing they want to be successful at.

Randall Munroe

excited successful want

If 'other people have experiences incorrectly' is annoying to you, think how unbearable it must be to have a condescending stranger tell you they hate the way you're experiencing your life at just the moment you've found something you want to remember.

Randall Munroe

hate people thinking

You don't use science to show you're right, you use science to become right.

Randall Munroe

use shows

News networks giving a greater voice to viewers because the social web is so popular are like a chef on the Titanic who, seeing the looming iceberg and fleeing customers, figures ice is the future and starts making snow cones.

Randall Munroe

ice snow giving

I'm not sure why we romanticize 'young love,' or love in general...It just leads to the idea that either your love is pure, perfect and eternal, and you are storybook-compatible in every way with no problems, or you're LYING when you say 'I love you.

Randall Munroe

love-you love-is lying

Take wrong turns. Talk to strangers. Open unmarked doors. And if you see a group of people in a field, go find out what they are doing. Do things without always knowing how they'll turn out.

Randall Munroe

knowing inspirational life

Correlation doesn’t imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing ‘look over there.’

Randall Munroe

eyebrows doe science

The role of gender in society is the most complicated thing I’ve ever spent a lot of time learning about, and I’ve spent a lot of time learning about quantum mechanics.

Randall Munroe

mechanic roles complicated

Google owns YouTube, and recently, I drew a comic about an idea for a YouTube feature - which they actually took seriously and implemented. So I'm thinking that maybe we'll have a future where Google is 'xkcd.'

Randall Munroe

google ideas thinking

If at first you don't succeed, that's one data point.

Randall Munroe

data succeed firsts

Things are rarely just crazy enough to work, but they're frequently just crazy enough to fail hilariously.

Randall Munroe

failing crazy enough

Our brains have just one scale, and we resize our experiences to fit.

Randall Munroe

scales fit brain

A million people can call the mountains a fiction, yet it need not trouble you as you stand atop them.

Randall Munroe

mountain people fiction

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can make me think I deserved it.

Randall Munroe

math may thinking

I think the comic that's gotten me the most feedback is actually the one about the stoplights. Noticing when the stoplights are in sync, or calculating the length of your strides between floor tiles - normal people notice that kind of stuff, but a certain kind of person will do some calculations.

Randall Munroe

tiles people thinking

Sometimes I mistake this for a universe that cares.

Randall Munroe

care mistake sometimes

Man, Farmville is so huge! Do you realize its the second-biggest browser-based social-networking-centered farming game in the world?

Randall Munroe

networking games men