That looks cool and I put it on my wish-list, but if you want a REAL guide to rebuilding civilization, try to find a copy of "Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia". It's even bigger (3,000 pages!), and it has the all the formulas and math and scientific theories. etc., from all branches of Science. That's what you'll really need to rebuild civilization.
I was one of the original backers for this when it was a Kickstarter project. I waited for almost 2 years for this book on Kickstarter. As the book grew in the backers so grew the scope of the project. I would have to go back through all my emails to show you the progress that was being made but it's not one author it was a team and they had hired multiple illustrators in order to achieve this project. Like I said it took it took over 2 years before it was delivered to me. The initial run had some issues with binding that never quite sat right with me but all in all I'm still happy that I backed the project. Edit: I see a lot of comments about AI generation. This project was underway in 2020 and wasn't shipped to me until mid-2022 at that time there was nothing on the market that would be capable of generating this type of work using AI. This was definitely done through the hard work of illustrators and writers.
@@mdb45424 I was suspicious of the art when Adam said there was no listed illustrator, but the human anatomy picture makes me believe this was, in fact, not ai generated. The decision to have the body held open with wires is the kind of character detail an ai, as I’ve seen from them, just isn’t capable of making. Not to mention that the anatomy seems to decently accurate across multiple pictures. Over so many pages you’d expect at least one hand to have mangled fingers.
I just went to the website for the book. There's a lot more info there. They have another Kickstarter for a new book. I kept getting this ad too. LOL. I thought it was clickbait as well.
THIS is the important comment that needs to be closer to the top! It gives us an origin and that is a legitimate project, as I had my reservations about it being legitimate (a passion project at least), or just a money grab which only contained pretty pictures but garbage info. Thank you!
@@davidmason5163 could we please stop advertising this thing? I must have seen the YT Ad more rhan 100 times. Now Adam starts selling out, advertising and you're here in the comments, advertising aswell. By now, if someone gifted me that book, I'd just throw it away.
I have to say, I love how thoughtful Adam is in his description of something. Even in his train of thought monologues to camera he takes the time to qualify his statements with things like "in Western history" or "first known recorded study". It may seem like overkill, but acknowleding assumptions and biases like that really show an awareness of the imperfections and gaps the recorded history of science and the context of how we got to know what we do now.
The implication being? That some civilization other than the West had all of this anatomical knowledge but it got lost? We know what the Chinese invented. We know what the Ganges civilization invented. Let's not get carried away trying to be so fair that we start presuming fantastical possibilities. That's Joe Rogan's thing.
@@jmchez Two Words, Darling: Antikythera Mechanism. Two more: Gobleki Tepi. Another two: Puma Punku. We could go on for a while but hopefully the gist is gotten. There are _definitive_ gaps in human knowledge about...human knowledge. There's nothing fantastical with either Adam or OP's mindset, switch to decaf.
@@jmchez It is fairly well established that the knowledge lost to time could fill libraries. It is also well established that more than a few 'first inventors' actually just stole credit from underlings or those without the social standing to gain recognition for their contributions. So, not just presuming fantastical possibilities. Rather acknowledging that what is known/recorded is not necessarily correct in attribution.
Your comment on being a “generalist” reminded me of something my college design professor once said about the difference between an Industrial Designer and an Engineer. “An Industrial Designer has to know almost nothing about every possible subject, while an Engineer knows everything there is to know about nothing.” My 40+-year career as an Industrial Designer, often working alongside engineers, has proved that statement to be 100% accurate.
That would be American engineers then. The definition is too broad and incomplete. You are seriously not in the same league or worthy to be saying such things about real engineers and you shouldn't be anywhere near a design career. No wonder there is so much crap on the market.
6:38 My freshman biochemistry seminar in college, a professor said as a scientist you can be a drill or a bulldozer. Both are needed because we can’t plumb the depths of knowledge without drills but we’d never now where to start or how their all connected without bulldozers
“The way things work” was an ABSOLUTELY formative book in my childhood in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I have no doubt it helped shape the mechanical mind that I carry around today.
I never read the book, but I DO remember checking out his other books in the library when I was a youngster, and watching his documentaries in school... the 'Cathedral' book was and is a masterpiece.
My army recruiter bought this on impulse and keeps it in his office. He's a largely no nonsense fellow but, whenever I come in to find him reading it, he's got this grin of enrapture and child-like fascination...and I find it highly endearing. He's never read _How Things Works_ but, I think he might be a little autistic and I'm getting him a copy as a Thank You gift if my psych waivers are accepted and his work to get me in pays off.
The book author has commented on the main critique thread up top, and it is a legitimate book with real info. Not the fake product we all kinda figured it might be. So that's good, and you can feel a bit better about his purchase haha
I went to a thrift shop today on my lunch break and happened across a copy of "The Way Things Work", I did not buy it because I have a copy, but I did move it from the cookbooks over to kids' books in hopes of it finding a curious young reader. Then I'm listening to videos as a work and it comes up. Gotta love that kind of coincidence!
Did you happen to speak it's name out loud when you saw it? I ask because, unfortunately, or phone salt DO mine what we say 🙁 That's why I've kept Google Assistant and Bixby disabled. AvE (ArduinoVsEverything), who Adam sort of worked with many years back to built a replica NASA object (capsul door i think?), once told a story of him and his buddy talking in his truck about a very obscure topic, and then within 30 minutes while he was on his phone, got an ad for it.... That was like 8 years ago and I've heard similar accounts since. However, my disturbing personal account was worse (in my opinion). I had searched for a warm Dog Coat (like a horse blanket), as he's >14 and gets cold in the winer. I only went to ONE listing (a similarly obscure company) because it had clearance items for $5. THE NEXT DAY while playing Angry Birds, it gave me ads for that exact site, showing those exact products. Note: that site was primarily for horses and livestock with only a very very small section of dog items. WORSE YET is that my Google settings have all tracking and similar stuff disabled. Come to find out that Android now has a baked in setting that ALSO does similar data collection, but *_it, too,_* was disabled.... So I clicked the option that resets the "key" associated with my device and haven't had it happen again... but I hate that it happened AT ALL. 😕 I also appreciate that I sound like a nut job... lol I won't blame you or anyone for thinking that, as I would too! I can only assure you that as a tech enthusiast, I am being honest. Otherwise I wouldn't bother going to these lengths to share this. 😊 _(sorry that I had to live up to my name and type a wall of words...)_
Found this book a few months ago and I cannot overstate how much it's become one of my favorite things of all time. It was legit the first thing I thought of when seeing the video in my suggestions "I'm sure Adam would love it; I should recommend it in case he hasn't heard of it." Absolutely ecstatic to hear him talking about it.
I definitely saw this though "oh thats a cool concept". Then thought "but it must be absolute garbage because it's being advertised as a youtube ad". Glad to hear its a decent quality thing
@@thumbsarehandy. Specialist hardbacks are remarkably expensive these days. I bought a friend a copy of Johnathon Ferguson's bullpup book from the Royal Armouries a while back and it was over a hundred quid.
'The Way Things Work' was my absolute favorite book as a child. I took it on every road trip and read every page and looked at every mammoth so much that I destroyed my first hardcover copy of the book and my parents had to get me a second one. I have that 2nd copy on my bookshelf and it will never leave.
I kick-started this book. It took two two years because of the pandemic and the outbreak of war in Ukraine to arrive but it did. It's amazing and I'm incredibly proud to have been able to help launch it.
The moment you said David Macaulay "The way things work" I remembered that from my childhood. I still have a CD of it, its like a program that has all kinds of animations that illustrates very well how things work.
I bought this book in August of 2024 without ever seeing any TH-cam ads for it. Honestly, I love these types of books and the Amazon reviews sold me on it. It's a fantastic read with stunning illustrations, and I'm really happy with my purchase. I still get a lot of enjoyment from it. While there are more comprehensive and cheaper books about rebuilding civilization-like The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell and How to Invent Everything by Ryan North-those don’t include the beautifully detailed illustrations of the machines they discuss. If you know of similar books, please share them in a reply so others can check them out too!
In Europe, between 1980 and 1994, we had an old French cartoon that was titled "Il était une fois... la Vie" that talks about how our bodies are made. But the TV company "Procidis" had some other titles like "Il était une fois... les Découvreurs" that managed to put all the fundamental discoveries (until 1994). And this book reminds me a lot of that.
@@cjvilleneuve1566Now hold on a minute. There's no need to insult the maestro here 😉. I loved that show and the old guy reminded me of my grandpa who always wanted to pass on his curiosity in science to us children.
Love David Macaulay. Have collected his various building books, "Cathedral", "Castle" and several others. Recently passed them along to my granddaughter.
If people google the book they can see the entire team behind it. A significant part of the team are the illustrators, which can't be much of a surprise.
I lost count how many times I told google\youtube to not show me that ad and it kept showing back up. So that tells me they spent a bunch of money of it. The Ad felt super conspiracy theory which made me not want to see it. With that said, if the book had been marketed like Adam just did as showing its technilogical marvels i'd had been more interested.
This has been on my wishlist for some time... when I can manage to justify spending $120 on a single book, it's definitely at the top of my list. As a Generalist myself, hearing you of all people excitedly saying that it is a Generalist's Dream Come True, is high praise and a better sales pitch than any advertisement.
I got the book and I love it. It is a dream for anyone who loves illustration. A guide to starting over it’s not but it’s a humorous and incredible journey through the pages.
The Way Things Work was absolutely foundational to the blossoming of my passion for making and learning how the world works. it is top 3 if not top in the list of most developmentally important books I've ever read.
Nice to see so many mentions of "The Knowledge" by Lewis Dartnell! Fantastic audiobook and one that I'll probably listen to again (rarely happens for me). Will definitely check out "How to Invent Everything" by Ryan North. Definitely a nostalgia hit hearing about The Way Things Work! I grew up on the og 1988 edition but I just ordered the 2023 newly revised edition for my kid.
Adam Savage being a "The way things work" stan is just another reason I know this man is good people. Those books sparked my curiosity about the world as a whole and I deeply, deeply appreciate them.
In the same vein there's also: - How to Invent Everything: Rebuild All of Civilization (with 96% fewer catastrophes this time) by Ryan North - Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment by Grady Hillhouse
There's many illustrators and artist on that book : Lev KapIan, Oksana Alexeevskaya, Marina Rudko, Irina Vinnik, Tatyana Konokhova, Gleb Konsulov, Olga Khodchenko, Marina Kupkina, Yaroslava Bogorodskaya and Sergey Vorobyev.
@@RedishEagle could we please stop advertising this thing? I must have seen the YT Ad more rhan 100 times. Now Adam starts selling out, advertising and you're here in the comments, advertising aswell. By now, if someone gifted me that book, I'd just throw it away.
@@Kahsimiah If by advertising you mean credit the marvelous work of Artists who deserv it, then I'll be advertising all the way. I do understand your take but that book is no cocacola or macdonalds, the advertising for it are not that bad and the book is a pretty cool piece of art nothing more. Have a good day.
David Macaulay's "The Way Things Work", I always loved this book when I first came across it in the 80s(?) my 1/2 brother (twenty years youger than me and I learnt so much from it. We were thrilled when we discovered a new edition and I immediately got a copy for his baby daughter, and it's become a firm favourite of hers too. His other books such as City, Castle, Cathedral, Pyramid and his archaology of a lost motel are worth seeking out too. Hopefully we won't have to rebuild civilisation, hopefully.
The passion and joy Adam, and the whole team, has discovering cool new things is so infectious! Every time I watch a tested video I am so excited to learn something new!
I just wanted to let you know that my 9-year-old and 7-year-old sons have been recently introduced to MythBusters reruns on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed your show when it was being shown on Discovery from day one, and now I'm able to enjoy it with my sons, and they have completely gotten hooked on everything about it. In fact, they really want to really explore science more because of it. I just wanted to pass along the impact that you guys still have to this day, and thank you so much for everything that your show did. I really do miss it, and I wish it was still going on.
7:30 - omg. that is Sub-Zero's fatality move from Mortal Kombat, they even have the buttons you need to press. Forward Down Forward Block. Well done book.
I asked for this book for my birthday, and was not disappointed. The illustrations are pure insane artworks and utterly beautiful. the Hungry Minds webside says that there were a team of artists that did the illustrations. A lot of the "instructions" are not really good enough to be extremely practical, but really are meant to demonstrate human creativity and ingenuity. It's worth they hype.
It's hugely obnoxious, especially considering how much we hear about our data being nefariously collected and fed through ingenious algorithms to manipulate us into parting with our money. I get ads for really sketchy diets, books "proving" that modern medicine is an evil plot, slinky clothing, and lawnmowers. This is something I might actually have clicked on.
I had a very similar experience, and as an engineer I have loved it. The diagrams and details are amazing. The easter eggs are hilarious. A fun thing to skim or dive into.
This was jammed down my throat via the algorithm and it gave me low key "prepper" vibes, so I paid it no mind. Seeing you buy it and post about it now has me curious.
Hear what you're saying about preppers being sketchy. It amazes me how anyone can be a specialist in a world full of so many amazing things to learn and discover. As children we are intentionally introduced to as much as possible, so that we can find that one thing to specialize in and have purpose to the greater whole, but after that experience, who could pick. I am always amazed at the people who do, but I feel most of us still don't. Most then are just shit at most things and kind of fall in to whatever, but the rest who are left are actually good at some things and still love and amazed by everything... But that has no value in a world that requires specialists. You can be the leading expert in whatever niche you pick if devote your life to it, but spend many life times learning everything and you still couldn't compete or scratch the surface... But if the whole world falls apart and someone is needed to put it back together, then you have great value. Personally I feel that's a real shitty thing to think about. "I hope the world falls apart so I am made special." I personally prefer to follow the "what if" presented to Arthur Dent in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. What if I am made special by complete accident and am teleported to a different world. How much of history could I be dropped into and have a meaningful impact. Realistically, sure I would die just as quickly as in any apocalypse situation, but everything doesn't have to go to shit for everyone else in my fantasy.
I have it too and i am in love with it! I do not regret impulse buying it at like 2am :) As an environment concept artist this is a pure gold mine! It combines functionality with surreal fantasy and just instantly sparks inspiration! It just gives me so many ideas, from worldbuilding and stories to how I could draw cutaways or explain props! Instant itch in my fingers to start creating whenever i flick through it!! Priceless! The work that went into making it shows so much. Also it’s absolutely ginormous which tbh I didn’t expect at all hahaha. I do think they should have had credits of everyone involved on the last page! They have the hungry minds logo on the first page and all the writers, researchers, illustrators are on the website if you look for it but it’s a missed opportunity not having it in the actual book! Especially now that people start assuming everything is Ai :/
I loved the two editions of "The Way Things Work" I had. I gave one away, then lost the other when I loaned it out. The illustrations were great - particularly for us dyslexics who think in images rather than words. I will definitely find this "Book" for myself given your glowing recommendation. thank you Adam and Tested!
I really enjoyed what you said about people who are specialists. So often, the best teachers are not the ones who know the most, but the ones who can simplify it and distribute it to people effectively. If they can do it with a smile, it's even better :)
I had that book, it was a mind opening tool, thanks to my mother's love for my education! Loved that everything was made to work or put in practice with mammoths
Two other books that cover the same ground are The Knowledge: How to Rebuild the World from Scratch by Lewis Dartnell and How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for Stranded Time Travelers by Ryan North. I found both interesting, especially from my perspective of SFF worldbuilding. There is also a follow on to The Book called The Black Book on a history of inventions that never were.
My mom bought this book for me for Christmas. She knew I had mentioned it from time to time and was wanting it and can say..not disappointed. 👌 Beautiful book..rather pricey, but still love it.
The MINUTE you showed that book on the screen I thought of "The Way Things Work." I have given so many copies of that book to all my friends kids over the years! Now we have the steam punk version of The Way Things Work, and I will order it immediately! AND it is THE epitome of Adam Savage! :D
I love how you describe this as the generalists comic book. I got this last year and it is such a pleasure to go through look at the illustrations and read the information.
Reminds me of a book a whole bunch of us bought 20 years ago. The Art of Shen Ku: The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe. Written in the style of a bunch of travvelers, it had information on knots, repaires, martial arts, first aid, magic tricks to entertain people and so much more. I used a whole bunch of their tips for save travel when i travels through China a few year later, inclsuing making a shirt they had a pattern for with a host of hidden pockets.
Thank you for covering this, Adam. Like you and many others, I saw this advertised and was interested but also wary. Glad to know it's worth a look after all.
I was gifted this book over the holidays. It's a nice book, the paper caught my attention immediately. At first I was like...oh, this is a cute little summary...thinking that some of these things would go into greater detail later and that it would be a nice tool for people disconnected from how things work and maybe they'll connect. As I went further along I came to the conclusion that it's more like a fun and condensed version of mankind's history and nothing more. Then I figured in a thousand years someone is gonna look at that and wonder if this is what we all believed and maybe think this is how the world was and whatever other imaginations they come up with. Like Adam says, a great coffee table item.
I wish that when i was 12-13 that i had access to the internet. I had so many questions about things (especially computers) that i just could not find info on in any library i had access to. I still, to this day, distinctly remember the time i read in a computer magazine on how the compare machine code instruction was executed in a microprocessor (Z-80 specifically). So many things came together in my head, and suddenly my understanding of machine coding damn near doubled. And that mind blowing fact was a throwaway comment in one sentence in an article about something else entirely. You just never know when you will run across an idea or fact that blows your mind.
I have a signed “The Way Thing Work” from David Macaulay as he visited my middle school back in the day. I’m guessing the stop was part of a book tour. I also enjoy his book demystifying medieval construction, “Castle.”
This reminds me of the Readers Digest Back to Basics. It's incredible, if there was a single book I would want to have to rebuild civilization, that's the one.
I backed their crowdfunding campaign! I am so happy with it once it finally arrived. If I recall, they had a team of illustrators that worked on various portions of the book.
like adam, i've always found it incredibly satisfying to feed my curiosity by learning about a wide variety of subjects, even knowing full well i'll always be far from expert in any of it. that thirst for knowledge is, afterall, what drives discovery & innovation largely through exploration & testing hypotheses, plus lots & lots of research about what piques our innate curiosity - it's part of what makes us human. 😊
Thank you for reminding me about The Way Things Work. My family packed up all our books in preparation to move about a decade ago and precedingly never moved nor unpacked, so most of my childhood books have been lost and forgotten in there. Some of them I remembered on my own but The Way Things Work has eluded me this whole time, I likely haven't thought about it since I was 10. Graduating college in a few months, gonna buy myself a new copy :)
Omg, you unlocked a deep seated memory about “How Things Work”! I completely forgot about that book and I have no idea how because, as a pre-teen I would CONSUME that book! I don’t know what happened to it but I know what I’m going to order right now! I’ll check out this one, too. Thanks for the rec, Adam. 💪🏼
The thing I loved most about this was seeing what I thought looked like Adam adjusting a hearing aid. As a 40 year old veteran who finally got hearing aids, it's nice seeing others that aren't "old men" wearing them
I love how in this book describing how to arise from the apocalypse, there's the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man in the background with his arms open wide heralding the beginning of the inevitable.
Also was one of the kickstarter backers, it got a bit more into fantasy than I was wanting, but overall it's a lovely book. They had posted several years worth of updates about how the book was created on their kickstarter.
My girlfriend got this for me for Christmas. It sits on my coffee table and I'm always randomly flipping and reading. I would call this the "Renaissance Man's Cookbook". Love it! and thanks Adam for the other book recommendation. Its already in my Amazon cart.
I have been collecting How To books and books on other esoterica my entire adult life. I have quite the collection. Nearly 300 books, some over a hundred years old. I realized at one point that what I was subconsciously doing was gathering information on how to rebuild society. I have books on everything from Route Surveying to Surgery of the Ambulatory Patient.
Adam, I'm so glad you found this book - I'm also a huge fan of it after first discovering its publication in Italian and then scrounging the internet to find the English copy for my father (who also loved it). In my search, I found that whilst no specific author or illustrator is listed, this is (I believe) because Hungry Minds is a very large group that had had multiple writers, illustrators, etc. work on the project - they all are listed on their site, and if memory serves you can even find out some information about which artists did line work, coloring, etc.
"The Book": amzn.to/3PDGR6k
The Way Things Work: amzn.to/40yQ8me
Disclaimer: Tested may earn a commission from purchases made via the links above.
Lev Kaplan, Oksana Alexeevskaya and Tatyana Konokhova are the illustrators of this book. It was written by a team of writers
And to show David Macaulay has an enlightened sense of humor about his work: "The Motel of the Mysteries".
@@maxximumb Timur Kadyrov (Creator), Vsevolod Batischev (Creator), Lev Kaplan (Illustrator)
I'm thinking about grabbing this, but no artist credit concerns me, Can you confirm these aren't AI generated illustrations?
That looks cool and I put it on my wish-list,
but if you want a REAL guide to rebuilding civilization, try to find a copy of "Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia".
It's even bigger (3,000 pages!), and it has the all the formulas and math and scientific theories. etc., from all branches of Science.
That's what you'll really need to rebuild civilization.
I know this book as the "annoying youtube ad" that was fed to me for the second half of 2024
haha yeah I wouldn't have touched it with a 10 foot clown pole
Every ad I asked myself, “if it’s for “restarting civilization” why is it so big? I’m not carrying that around with me.”
I always thought it was just click bate. Same as every Temu ad.
I second that emotion!
Same. None of those ads have ever interested me. It just seemed like an annoying clickbait thing.
I was one of the original backers for this when it was a Kickstarter project. I waited for almost 2 years for this book on Kickstarter. As the book grew in the backers so grew the scope of the project. I would have to go back through all my emails to show you the progress that was being made but it's not one author it was a team and they had hired multiple illustrators in order to achieve this project. Like I said it took it took over 2 years before it was delivered to me. The initial run had some issues with binding that never quite sat right with me but all in all I'm still happy that I backed the project.
Edit: I see a lot of comments about AI generation. This project was underway in 2020 and wasn't shipped to me until mid-2022 at that time there was nothing on the market that would be capable of generating this type of work using AI. This was definitely done through the hard work of illustrators and writers.
it had artists? from what I seen it looked Ai generated, especially how to jump from topic to topic
@@mdb45424
I was suspicious of the art when Adam said there was no listed illustrator, but the human anatomy picture makes me believe this was, in fact, not ai generated.
The decision to have the body held open with wires is the kind of character detail an ai, as I’ve seen from them, just isn’t capable of making.
Not to mention that the anatomy seems to decently accurate across multiple pictures. Over so many pages you’d expect at least one hand to have mangled fingers.
@ioutunless the air was ask to use certain style from different artist true time....
I just went to the website for the book. There's a lot more info there. They have another Kickstarter for a new book. I kept getting this ad too. LOL. I thought it was clickbait as well.
THIS is the important comment that needs to be closer to the top! It gives us an origin and that is a legitimate project, as I had my reservations about it being legitimate (a passion project at least), or just a money grab which only contained pretty pictures but garbage info.
Thank you!
Main Illustrator - Lev Kaplan,
Illustrators - Oksana Alexeevskaya, Tatyana Konokhova, Irina Vinnik, Marina Rudko, Gleb Konsulov, Olga Khodchenko, Marina Kupkina, Yaroslava Bogorodskaya, Sergey Vorobyev.
@@davidmason5163 could we please stop advertising this thing? I must have seen the YT Ad more rhan 100 times. Now Adam starts selling out, advertising and you're here in the comments, advertising aswell. By now, if someone gifted me that book, I'd just throw it away.
Thank you.
Very Slavic crew
I have to say, I love how thoughtful Adam is in his description of something. Even in his train of thought monologues to camera he takes the time to qualify his statements with things like "in Western history" or "first known recorded study". It may seem like overkill, but acknowleding assumptions and biases like that really show an awareness of the imperfections and gaps the recorded history of science and the context of how we got to know what we do now.
Appreciate that; thank you. We’ll pass your comment on to Adam.
The implication being? That some civilization other than the West had all of this anatomical knowledge but it got lost? We know what the Chinese invented. We know what the Ganges civilization invented. Let's not get carried away trying to be so fair that we start presuming fantastical possibilities. That's Joe Rogan's thing.
@@jmchez Two Words, Darling: Antikythera Mechanism. Two more: Gobleki Tepi. Another two: Puma Punku. We could go on for a while but hopefully the gist is gotten. There are _definitive_ gaps in human knowledge about...human knowledge. There's nothing fantastical with either Adam or OP's mindset, switch to decaf.
@@jmchezthe implication being that racism has destroyed evidence of prior knowledge in the past. Which is most definitely real.
@@jmchez It is fairly well established that the knowledge lost to time could fill libraries. It is also well established that more than a few 'first inventors' actually just stole credit from underlings or those without the social standing to gain recognition for their contributions.
So, not just presuming fantastical possibilities. Rather acknowledging that what is known/recorded is not necessarily correct in attribution.
Your comment on being a “generalist” reminded me of something my college design professor once said about the difference between an Industrial Designer and an Engineer. “An Industrial Designer has to know almost nothing about every possible subject, while an Engineer knows everything there is to know about nothing.” My 40+-year career as an Industrial Designer, often working alongside engineers, has proved that statement to be 100% accurate.
As an industrial designer who has worked alongside engineers for years, I could not agree with you more!
That would be American engineers then. The definition is too broad and incomplete. You are seriously not in the same league or worthy to be saying such things about real engineers and you shouldn't be anywhere near a design career. No wonder there is so much crap on the market.
@biomechanique6874 - By “American Engineers”, are you referring to the only variety of engineers who put men on the moon? 🤔
@biomechanique6874 It looks like your Amerlcaphobla is so strong that it prevents you from understanding basic humorous hyperbole.
6:38 My freshman biochemistry seminar in college, a professor said as a scientist you can be a drill or a bulldozer. Both are needed because we can’t plumb the depths of knowledge without drills but we’d never now where to start or how their all connected without bulldozers
Yeah I'm team bulldozer over here
I... might need to borrow that...
“The way things work” was an ABSOLUTELY formative book in my childhood in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
I have no doubt it helped shape the mechanical mind that I carry around today.
I never read the book, but I DO remember checking out his other books in the library when I was a youngster, and watching his documentaries in school... the 'Cathedral' book was and is a masterpiece.
I only discovered the book later in life. I would've loved it when I was a kid.
My army recruiter bought this on impulse and keeps it in his office. He's a largely no nonsense fellow but, whenever I come in to find him reading it, he's got this grin of enrapture and child-like fascination...and I find it highly endearing. He's never read _How Things Works_ but, I think he might be a little autistic and I'm getting him a copy as a Thank You gift if my psych waivers are accepted and his work to get me in pays off.
The book author has commented on the main critique thread up top, and it is a legitimate book with real info. Not the fake product we all kinda figured it might be. So that's good, and you can feel a bit better about his purchase haha
That's amazing ❤
I went to a thrift shop today on my lunch break and happened across a copy of "The Way Things Work", I did not buy it because I have a copy, but I did move it from the cookbooks over to kids' books in hopes of it finding a curious young reader.
Then I'm listening to videos as a work and it comes up.
Gotta love that kind of coincidence!
Did you happen to speak it's name out loud when you saw it?
I ask because, unfortunately, or phone salt DO mine what we say 🙁 That's why I've kept Google Assistant and Bixby disabled.
AvE (ArduinoVsEverything), who Adam sort of worked with many years back to built a replica NASA object (capsul door i think?), once told a story of him and his buddy talking in his truck about a very obscure topic, and then within 30 minutes while he was on his phone, got an ad for it....
That was like 8 years ago and I've heard similar accounts since.
However, my disturbing personal account was worse (in my opinion). I had searched for a warm Dog Coat (like a horse blanket), as he's >14 and gets cold in the winer. I only went to ONE listing (a similarly obscure company) because it had clearance items for $5.
THE NEXT DAY while playing Angry Birds, it gave me ads for that exact site, showing those exact products. Note: that site was primarily for horses and livestock with only a very very small section of dog items.
WORSE YET is that my Google settings have all tracking and similar stuff disabled. Come to find out that Android now has a baked in setting that ALSO does similar data collection, but *_it, too,_* was disabled....
So I clicked the option that resets the "key" associated with my device and haven't had it happen again... but I hate that it happened AT ALL. 😕
I also appreciate that I sound like a nut job... lol I won't blame you or anyone for thinking that, as I would too! I can only assure you that as a tech enthusiast, I am being honest. Otherwise I wouldn't bother going to these lengths to share this. 😊
_(sorry that I had to live up to my name and type a wall of words...)_
If you want to have fun, go to your local library and move books about cannibals and cannibalism into the cooking section.
@@WilliamBlakers Have done library work. This would get me banned from L-Space.
Found this book a few months ago and I cannot overstate how much it's become one of my favorite things of all time. It was legit the first thing I thought of when seeing the video in my suggestions "I'm sure Adam would love it; I should recommend it in case he hasn't heard of it." Absolutely ecstatic to hear him talking about it.
Well done. That's a great book. Bought it for my son years ago and he loved it
I definitely saw this though "oh thats a cool concept". Then thought "but it must be absolute garbage because it's being advertised as a youtube ad".
Glad to hear its a decent quality thing
I felt the exact same…. But it was an annoying instagram ad. Looked cool though.
The price is still outrageous. I was very intrigued by the ads but when I found out it's $200!? That's more than I paid for my college textbooks!
@@thumbsarehandy. That's really not bad for a book of this size and complexity. It's a totally reasonable price for what you're getting.
@@thumbsarehandy. Specialist hardbacks are remarkably expensive these days. I bought a friend a copy of Johnathon Ferguson's bullpup book from the Royal Armouries a while back and it was over a hundred quid.
Agree, some ads on YT are about weird things... but not in our case:)
'The Way Things Work' was my absolute favorite book as a child. I took it on every road trip and read every page and looked at every mammoth so much that I destroyed my first hardcover copy of the book and my parents had to get me a second one. I have that 2nd copy on my bookshelf and it will never leave.
I've never seen an ad for this in my life but I absolutely want to buy it regardless. Efforts like this should be rewarded where possible.
I kick-started this book. It took two two years because of the pandemic and the outbreak of war in Ukraine to arrive but it did. It's amazing and I'm incredibly proud to have been able to help launch it.
The Way Things Work is maybe the most dear book from my childhood. I have a copy on my shelf now waiting for my kids to be old enough to discover it.
The moment you said David Macaulay "The way things work" I remembered that from my childhood. I still have a CD of it, its like a program that has all kinds of animations that illustrates very well how things work.
Ooh, I hope i still have that. Can you still open cd roms? I'll have to try. DK did quite a few, I probably still have them somewhere.
@@ChazzyB-2024 I have DVD-RW drive so, yeah I can still open CD roms.
In that case so can I, yay. Now if I can only find the CD roms.
I bought this book in August of 2024 without ever seeing any TH-cam ads for it. Honestly, I love these types of books and the Amazon reviews sold me on it. It's a fantastic read with stunning illustrations, and I'm really happy with my purchase. I still get a lot of enjoyment from it. While there are more comprehensive and cheaper books about rebuilding civilization-like The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell and How to Invent Everything by Ryan North-those don’t include the beautifully detailed illustrations of the machines they discuss. If you know of similar books, please share them in a reply so others can check them out too!
In Europe, between 1980 and 1994, we had an old French cartoon that was titled "Il était une fois... la Vie" that talks about how our bodies are made. But the TV company "Procidis" had some other titles like "Il était une fois... les Découvreurs" that managed to put all the fundamental discoveries (until 1994). And this book reminds me a lot of that.
Yes some character look like them,,and the way the subject is undertaken, minus the bearded weirdo and the kids
@@cjvilleneuve1566Now hold on a minute. There's no need to insult the maestro here 😉.
I loved that show and the old guy reminded me of my grandpa who always wanted to pass on his curiosity in science to us children.
I absolutely love the history series, also the body one but the history was more my cup of tea...I watched again 25 years later with my kids
@@The_Ramalock it was absolutley brilliant.
core memory unlocked of red cells storing oxygen in their butt pockets
Love David Macaulay. Have collected his various building books, "Cathedral", "Castle" and several others. Recently passed them along to my granddaughter.
If people google the book they can see the entire team behind it. A significant part of the team are the illustrators, which can't be much of a surprise.
5:33 Perfectly explained, it's the exact reason I love being a generalist, dispite the drawbacks that come with it.
The amount of marketing behind this book is insane.
also, the quality of marketing behind this book is abysmal. I genuinely would never have bought it after being bombarded with generic ads for it
@L0op I definitely was like that sounds like the exact thing I'd be into but also this feels like a scam.
@@paintballercali 90% certain it was a scam, the art looks ai generated
I lost count how many times I told google\youtube to not show me that ad and it kept showing back up. So that tells me they spent a bunch of money of it. The Ad felt super conspiracy theory which made me not want to see it. With that said, if the book had been marketed like Adam just did as showing its technilogical marvels i'd had been more interested.
@@aqueleAntonino weird to all my adds were pushing it as a cool art piece. Must be what Google thinks you're into
When you mentiond David Macaulay, I remembered watching his PBS movies in Castle, Cathederal and Pyramid as a teen. Enjoyed them very much.
This has been on my wishlist for some time... when I can manage to justify spending $120 on a single book, it's definitely at the top of my list. As a Generalist myself, hearing you of all people excitedly saying that it is a Generalist's Dream Come True, is high praise and a better sales pitch than any advertisement.
I got the book and I love it. It is a dream for anyone who loves illustration. A guide to starting over it’s not but it’s a humorous and incredible journey through the pages.
The Way Things Work was absolutely foundational to the blossoming of my passion for making and learning how the world works. it is top 3 if not top in the list of most developmentally important books I've ever read.
I've been getting this recommended to me as well! I'm glad someone I trust is actually showing it off
Nice to see so many mentions of "The Knowledge" by Lewis Dartnell! Fantastic audiobook and one that I'll probably listen to again (rarely happens for me). Will definitely check out "How to Invent Everything" by Ryan North. Definitely a nostalgia hit hearing about The Way Things Work! I grew up on the og 1988 edition but I just ordered the 2023 newly revised edition for my kid.
My grandfather gave me that book. I still have it today. He gave it to all us grandkids. Still love to flip through it to this day.
Adam Savage being a "The way things work" stan is just another reason I know this man is good people. Those books sparked my curiosity about the world as a whole and I deeply, deeply appreciate them.
My husband still has his old copy of The Way Things Work, which he passed down to the kids. It's one of their (many) favorites.
In the same vein there's also:
- How to Invent Everything: Rebuild All of Civilization (with 96% fewer catastrophes this time) by Ryan North
- Engineering in Plain Sight: An Illustrated Field Guide to the Constructed Environment by Grady Hillhouse
I gave The Book to my wife as a gift for the art. I HAD to pair it with How to Invent Everything so there was actual useful information
Grady(of Practical Engineering) produce a wonderful book in "Engineering in Plain Sight."
How to invent everything is an amazing book. Highly recommend
"96% fewer catastrophes this time"
That made me giggle
There's many illustrators and artist on that book : Lev KapIan, Oksana Alexeevskaya, Marina Rudko, Irina Vinnik, Tatyana Konokhova, Gleb Konsulov, Olga Khodchenko, Marina Kupkina, Yaroslava Bogorodskaya and Sergey Vorobyev.
@@RedishEagle could we please stop advertising this thing? I must have seen the YT Ad more rhan 100 times. Now Adam starts selling out, advertising and you're here in the comments, advertising aswell. By now, if someone gifted me that book, I'd just throw it away.
@@Kahsimiah If by advertising you mean credit the marvelous work of Artists who deserv it, then I'll be advertising all the way.
I do understand your take but that book is no cocacola or macdonalds, the advertising for it are not that bad and the book is a pretty cool piece of art nothing more.
Have a good day.
David Macaulay's "The Way Things Work", I always loved this book when I first came across it in the 80s(?) my 1/2 brother (twenty years youger than me and I learnt so much from it. We were thrilled when we discovered a new edition and I immediately got a copy for his baby daughter, and it's become a firm favourite of hers too. His other books such as City, Castle, Cathedral, Pyramid and his archaology of a lost motel are worth seeking out too.
Hopefully we won't have to rebuild civilisation, hopefully.
The passion and joy Adam, and the whole team, has discovering cool new things is so infectious! Every time I watch a tested video I am so excited to learn something new!
I still have my copy of “The Way Things Work”. Loved that book. It’s since been handed down to my engineer brained son.
I just wanted to let you know that my 9-year-old and 7-year-old sons have been recently introduced to MythBusters reruns on Amazon Prime.
I enjoyed your show when it was being shown on Discovery from day one, and now I'm able to enjoy it with my sons, and they have completely gotten hooked on everything about it. In fact, they really want to really explore science more because of it.
I just wanted to pass along the impact that you guys still have to this day, and thank you so much for everything that your show did.
I really do miss it, and I wish it was still going on.
7:30 - omg. that is Sub-Zero's fatality move from Mortal Kombat, they even have the buttons you need to press. Forward Down Forward Block. Well done book.
Wow and Shao Kahn on the other page.
I was wondering if anyone else recognized the button combo too.
There are Easter’s eggs almost in every illustration. We are kinds geeks
I asked for this book for my birthday, and was not disappointed. The illustrations are pure insane artworks and utterly beautiful. the Hungry Minds webside says that there were a team of artists that did the illustrations. A lot of the "instructions" are not really good enough to be extremely practical, but really are meant to demonstrate human creativity and ingenuity. It's worth they hype.
Thanks for your trust!
Comments are full of complaints but I get endless ads for everything and I've never heard of this book before. Internet advertising is weird.
100%
It's hugely obnoxious, especially considering how much we hear about our data being nefariously collected and fed through ingenious algorithms to manipulate us into parting with our money.
I get ads for really sketchy diets, books "proving" that modern medicine is an evil plot, slinky clothing, and lawnmowers. This is something I might actually have clicked on.
What comments? Those might be about delayed deliveries, aren't they?
I think they are talking about the annoying ads for the book.
Love the book myself, bought copies for all the guys (Brother in Law, Nephew, and my Father) in my family. They all loved it too.
I had a very similar experience, and as an engineer I have loved it. The diagrams and details are amazing. The easter eggs are hilarious. A fun thing to skim or dive into.
I had The Way Things Work as a kid and I think it kicked off my interest in engineering! Such a beautiful book I might have to get a copy
The Way Things Work is a must have for every kid's household library. Its a great gift and a useful self-teaching tool.
This was jammed down my throat via the algorithm and it gave me low key "prepper" vibes, so I paid it no mind. Seeing you buy it and post about it now has me curious.
Hear what you're saying about preppers being sketchy. It amazes me how anyone can be a specialist in a world full of so many amazing things to learn and discover. As children we are intentionally introduced to as much as possible, so that we can find that one thing to specialize in and have purpose to the greater whole, but after that experience, who could pick. I am always amazed at the people who do, but I feel most of us still don't. Most then are just shit at most things and kind of fall in to whatever, but the rest who are left are actually good at some things and still love and amazed by everything... But that has no value in a world that requires specialists. You can be the leading expert in whatever niche you pick if devote your life to it, but spend many life times learning everything and you still couldn't compete or scratch the surface... But if the whole world falls apart and someone is needed to put it back together, then you have great value. Personally I feel that's a real shitty thing to think about. "I hope the world falls apart so I am made special." I personally prefer to follow the "what if" presented to Arthur Dent in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. What if I am made special by complete accident and am teleported to a different world. How much of history could I be dropped into and have a meaningful impact. Realistically, sure I would die just as quickly as in any apocalypse situation, but everything doesn't have to go to shit for everyone else in my fantasy.
I have it too and i am in love with it! I do not regret impulse buying it at like 2am :) As an environment concept artist this is a pure gold mine! It combines functionality with surreal fantasy and just instantly sparks inspiration! It just gives me so many ideas, from worldbuilding and stories to how I could draw cutaways or explain props! Instant itch in my fingers to start creating whenever i flick through it!! Priceless!
The work that went into making it shows so much.
Also it’s absolutely ginormous which tbh I didn’t expect at all hahaha.
I do think they should have had credits of everyone involved on the last page! They have the hungry minds logo on the first page and all the writers, researchers, illustrators are on the website if you look for it but it’s a missed opportunity not having it in the actual book! Especially now that people start assuming everything is Ai :/
I loved the two editions of "The Way Things Work" I had. I gave one away, then lost the other when I loaned it out.
The illustrations were great - particularly for us dyslexics who think in images rather than words.
I will definitely find this "Book" for myself given your glowing recommendation. thank you Adam and Tested!
I really enjoyed what you said about people who are specialists. So often, the best teachers are not the ones who know the most, but the ones who can simplify it and distribute it to people effectively. If they can do it with a smile, it's even better :)
THE WAY THINGS WORK!!! Adam you've unlocked some lost media from feep within my brains!! Thank you. I have to buy this now
I owned a copy of The Way Things Work when I was a kid, can confirm, it's a great book and well worth a purchase.
I had that book, it was a mind opening tool, thanks to my mother's love for my education! Loved that everything was made to work or put in practice with mammoths
I still have my dad's copy of The Way Things Work! It was one of my favorite books growing up!
Two other books that cover the same ground are The Knowledge: How to Rebuild the World from Scratch by Lewis Dartnell and How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for Stranded Time Travelers by Ryan North. I found both interesting, especially from my perspective of SFF worldbuilding. There is also a follow on to The Book called The Black Book on a history of inventions that never were.
My mom bought this book for me for Christmas. She knew I had mentioned it from time to time and was wanting it and can say..not disappointed. 👌 Beautiful book..rather pricey, but still love it.
Thank you! Do you enjoy exploring The Book?
The MINUTE you showed that book on the screen I thought of "The Way Things Work." I have given so many copies of that book to all my friends kids over the years! Now we have the steam punk version of The Way Things Work, and I will order it immediately! AND it is THE epitome of Adam Savage! :D
I got this for Christmas! I freaking love it.
Another one you would really enjoy is Thing Explainer, by Randall Munroe of XKCD fame
I love how you describe this as the generalists comic book. I got this last year and it is such a pleasure to go through look at the illustrations and read the information.
Reminds me of a book a whole bunch of us bought 20 years ago. The Art of Shen Ku: The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe. Written in the style of a bunch of travvelers, it had information on knots, repaires, martial arts, first aid, magic tricks to entertain people and so much more. I used a whole bunch of their tips for save travel when i travels through China a few year later, inclsuing making a shirt they had a pattern for with a host of hidden pockets.
Thank you for covering this, Adam. Like you and many others, I saw this advertised and was interested but also wary. Glad to know it's worth a look after all.
I found this in a bookshop and suddenly realised I had spent an hour reading it.
!
Have you got a copy eventually?
I got "the Book" after being peppered with ads. I was not disappointed.
I was gifted this book over the holidays. It's a nice book, the paper caught my attention immediately. At first I was like...oh, this is a cute little summary...thinking that some of these things would go into greater detail later and that it would be a nice tool for people disconnected from how things work and maybe they'll connect. As I went further along I came to the conclusion that it's more like a fun and condensed version of mankind's history and nothing more. Then I figured in a thousand years someone is gonna look at that and wonder if this is what we all believed and maybe think this is how the world was and whatever other imaginations they come up with. Like Adam says, a great coffee table item.
Fond memories of The Way Things Work, had a copy growing up and spent hours poring overs it pages
We bought it for a friend for Christmas and ended up picking up a copy for ourselves. Neat book very well done not disappointed at all.
I still have "The Way Things Work," which my grandfather gave me! I love that book, and I need to pull it out again soon!
I wish that when i was 12-13 that i had access to the internet. I had so many questions about things (especially computers) that i just could not find info on in any library i had access to. I still, to this day, distinctly remember the time i read in a computer magazine on how the compare machine code instruction was executed in a microprocessor (Z-80 specifically). So many things came together in my head, and suddenly my understanding of machine coding damn near doubled.
And that mind blowing fact was a throwaway comment in one sentence in an article about something else entirely. You just never know when you will run across an idea or fact that blows your mind.
While growing up I had the 1970’s version of this book, Richard Scarry’s The Best Storybook Ever.
That book was a Kickstarter that I backed about 5 years ago.
Thank you! You've received your copy, haven't you?
thank you for taking the plunge on this, its advertising was very suspect, but I'm very happy to hear that the product itself is worthwhile!
Grew up always having a copy of The Way Things Work. Gave me so many ideas of mechanical concepts that has likely influenced me throughout my life
I own a copy of The Way Things Work and I also bought one for my younger brother when he got old enough to read.
One of the GOAT books.
I have a signed “The Way Thing Work” from David Macaulay as he visited my middle school back in the day. I’m guessing the stop was part of a book tour. I also enjoy his book demystifying medieval construction, “Castle.”
My dad always preferred the "B" student over the straight "A"student because of their curiosity and adding questions over getting the right answer.
This reminds me of the Readers Digest Back to Basics. It's incredible, if there was a single book I would want to have to rebuild civilization, that's the one.
The Way Things Work was my favorite book when I was a kid!
I backed their crowdfunding campaign! I am so happy with it once it finally arrived. If I recall, they had a team of illustrators that worked on various portions of the book.
That's so nice to read it. More project are "WIP" by the way!
like adam, i've always found it incredibly satisfying to feed my curiosity by learning about a wide variety of subjects, even knowing full well i'll always be far from expert in any of it. that thirst for knowledge is, afterall, what drives discovery & innovation largely through exploration & testing hypotheses, plus lots & lots of research about what piques our innate curiosity - it's part of what makes us human. 😊
I've seen this book ad a hundred times, I'm shocked it actually exists
Why are you shocked?:) The Book is really cool though.
I was 5 or 6 going through the book “the way things worked” great book for everyone
I contributed to that Kickstart campaign!!! It's fantastic!!
Thanks for your trust! Because of The Book's success, more books are coming soon!
Thank you for reminding me about The Way Things Work. My family packed up all our books in preparation to move about a decade ago and precedingly never moved nor unpacked, so most of my childhood books have been lost and forgotten in there. Some of them I remembered on my own but The Way Things Work has eluded me this whole time, I likely haven't thought about it since I was 10. Graduating college in a few months, gonna buy myself a new copy :)
Omg, you unlocked a deep seated memory about “How Things Work”! I completely forgot about that book and I have no idea how because, as a pre-teen I would CONSUME that book!
I don’t know what happened to it but I know what I’m going to order right now! I’ll check out this one, too.
Thanks for the rec, Adam. 💪🏼
there are hidden gems in the illustrations...good luck finding them
Talking about the little Mammoths brought back powerful memories of pawing through that big thick book as a kid!
The thing I loved most about this was seeing what I thought looked like Adam adjusting a hearing aid. As a 40 year old veteran who finally got hearing aids, it's nice seeing others that aren't "old men" wearing them
Got a copy for Christmas and like it just as much as Adam.
"The wayt things work" was the first interactive CD "game" I had, more than 20 years ago, I learned so much with it.
I adore that this book is something more than a by line, it buys into its own mythos and purpose of existence.
Hey, I got that one for Christmas! It's pretty good.
I love how in this book describing how to arise from the apocalypse, there's the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man in the background with his arms open wide heralding the beginning of the inevitable.
One thing I always responded to was Adam's enthusiasm.
I had the entire set of " The way things work". I still have aome pf the books. Love them
My dad had The Way Things Work and me and my brothers read it all the time.
Thank you for your feedback, I appreciated a lot. I am also a huge fan of you!
Hey I got that for my birthday last year!! It's so beautifully done!
Everyone who's visited has spent some time coveting it.
Just don't tell them where you got one from! Let's make them visit you more often!
Also was one of the kickstarter backers, it got a bit more into fantasy than I was wanting, but overall it's a lovely book. They had posted several years worth of updates about how the book was created on their kickstarter.
That was a journey full of challenges. Thanks for your trust!
My girlfriend got this for me for Christmas. It sits on my coffee table and I'm always randomly flipping and reading. I would call this the "Renaissance Man's Cookbook". Love it! and thanks Adam for the other book recommendation. Its already in my Amazon cart.
Great gift choice!
I have been collecting How To books and books on other esoterica my entire adult life. I have quite the collection. Nearly 300 books, some over a hundred years old.
I realized at one point that what I was subconsciously doing was gathering information on how to rebuild society. I have books on everything from Route Surveying to Surgery of the Ambulatory Patient.
You'll be ready for the apocalypse then
BHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Adam, I'm so glad you found this book - I'm also a huge fan of it after first discovering its publication in Italian and then scrounging the internet to find the English copy for my father (who also loved it).
In my search, I found that whilst no specific author or illustrator is listed, this is (I believe) because Hungry Minds is a very large group that had had multiple writers, illustrators, etc. work on the project - they all are listed on their site, and if memory serves you can even find out some information about which artists did line work, coloring, etc.
For a minute I thought Adam was just going to sit there and read the book without speaking... That would be hilarious 😂😂😂