{"product_id":"the-geeks-guide-to-world-domination-isbn-9780307450340","title":"The Geeks' Guide to World Domination","description":"\u003cb\u003eTUNE IN. TURN ON. GEEK OUT.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eSorry, beautiful people. These days, from government to business to technology to Hollywood, \u003ci\u003egeeks\u003c\/i\u003e rule the world. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally, here’s the book no self-respecting geek can live without–a guide jam-packed with 314.1516 short entries both useful and fun. Science, pop-culture trivia, paper airplanes, and pure geekish nostalgia coexist as happily in these pages as they do in their natural habitat of the geek brain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn short, dear geek, here you’ll find everything you need to achieve nirvana. And here, for you pathetic nongeeks, is the last chance to save yourselves: Love this book, live this book, and you too can join us in the experience of \u003ci\u003etotal world domination. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e• \u003cb\u003ebecome\u003c\/b\u003e a sudoku god\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003ebrew\u003c\/b\u003e your own beer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e• build\u003c\/b\u003e a laser beam\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003eclassify\u003c\/b\u003e all living things\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003eclone\u003c\/b\u003e your pet\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003eexorcise\u003c\/b\u003e demons\u003cbr\u003e•\u003cb\u003e find\u003c\/b\u003e the world’s best corn mazes\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003egrasp\u003c\/b\u003e the theory of relativity\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003ehave sex\u003c\/b\u003e on Second Life\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003einjure\u003c\/b\u003e a fish\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003ejoin\u003c\/b\u003e the Knights Templar\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003ekick ass\u003c\/b\u003e with sweet martial-arts moves\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003elearn\u003c\/b\u003e ludicrous emoticons\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003emaster\u003c\/b\u003e the Ocarina of Time\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003epimp\u003c\/b\u003e your cubicle\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003eprogram\u003c\/b\u003e a remote control\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003equote\u003c\/b\u003e He-Man and Che Guevara\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003esolve\u003c\/b\u003e fiendish logic puzzles\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003etouch\u003c\/b\u003e Carl Sagan \u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003eunmask\u003c\/b\u003e Linus Torvalds\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003evisit\u003c\/b\u003e Beaver Lick, Kentucky\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003ewin\u003c\/b\u003e bar bets\u003cbr\u003e• \u003cb\u003ewrite\u003c\/b\u003e your name in Elvish\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoin us or die, you will.\u003cbr\u003eBegun, the Geek Wars have\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eGARTH SUNDEM\u003c\/b\u003e is the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eGeek Logik: 50 Foolproof Equations for Everyday Life.\u003c\/i\u003e He and his wife live in California with their two kids and a large Labrador.Welcome to my GEEK brain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt has exactly 314.15 information slots. While I wish there were more slots, alas, there are not. And while I wish these slots were packed with things like mathematical proofs of Millennium Prize problems, the mechanics of teleportation using Einstein- Podolsky- Rosen entanglement, and the physics behind NASA’s new plasma propulsion engine, this is not the case either. Instead, elbowing out useful, enriching, or scientific facts are folding instructions for a jumping origami frog, lists of English words you can spell on a basic calculator, and haikus written in praise of SPAM (the pork product of questionable lineage), all of which threaten at any second to burst through my facade of normalcy like parasitic aliens from John Hurt’s chest. Geek attack: Picture it. It’s not pretty.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd, for better or for worse, I’m not alone.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToday’s ubiquitous geek is like a massive musical mixing board, with\u003cbr\u003evarious geeks turning up or turning down different dials, boosting–for\u003cbr\u003eexample–80s pop arcana or programming languages or fantasy football\u003cbr\u003eStats or behavioral economics or quotes from \u003ci\u003eThis Is Spinal Tap \u003c\/i\u003e(the last\u003cbr\u003eOf which have the relevant dial turned up to 11). We don’t all boost the\u003cbr\u003esame dials and we certainly don’t appreciate being \u003ci\u003edefined; \u003c\/i\u003ehowever,\u003cbr\u003ethere is one constant that applies to all brands of geek–in all of us, \u003ci\u003ethese\u003cbr\u003edials are turned way up. \u003c\/i\u003eIn fact, our geek informational dials are turned\u003cbr\u003eup to the point that they sometimes drown out our ability to function\u003cbr\u003esmoothly in the social world; in other words, with our geek specialty of\u003cbr\u003echoice thumping away inside our brains at maximum decibels, things\u003cbr\u003elike social niceties, our wardrobes, our anniversaries, and our ability to\u003cbr\u003econtribute to dinner conversation without injecting weird factoids from\u003cbr\u003eThe mating strategies of clownfish can be effectively silenced.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTake heart, dear geek: With the world evolving toward ever- higher\u003cbr\u003eLevels of required specialization, more and more people are turning up\u003cbr\u003eTheir information dials to the point of usurping their ability to function\u003cbr\u003eNormally. In short, more people are becoming geeks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo illustrate this geekification of modern society, imagine–if you\u003cbr\u003ewill–a middle- school rocket club. One kid follows the directions, carefully\u003cbr\u003epenciling in exact fin placement and then, after allowing the required\u003cbr\u003edrying time, painstakingly sanding, painting, and applying decals\u003cbr\u003euntil the finished rocket is a mere blip in a wind tunnel. All another kid\u003cbr\u003ewants to do is send a live payload as high as possible–into the clear\u003cbr\u003eplastic cockpit of a three- stage D- engine rocket, he packs intrepid (and\u003cbr\u003epotentially ill- fated) caterpillars, each with a name like Buzz or Chuck\u003cbr\u003eor Neil. A third kid has a vision: a center fuselage flanked by auxiliary\u003cbr\u003etubes, each with a separate nose cone, the whole contraption having the\u003cbr\u003epotential to arc gracefully skyward or, three feet off the launch pole, to\u003cbr\u003estart spinning wildly, explode spectacularly, and negatively affect hearing\u003cbr\u003ein the faculty adviser’s left ear.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYes, I knew these kids. (Today, the first is in the Stats department\u003cbr\u003eat Oxford, the second is an entomologist specializing in system change\u003cbr\u003edue to catastrophic events, and the third is an environmental architect.)\u003cbr\u003eOK, I was one of them–I oscillated between keeping a meticulous flight\u003cbr\u003elog and pirating the rocket engine gunpowder for use in more terrestrial\u003cbr\u003epyrotechnic experiments. Thanks in part to genetics–my dad is a former\u003cbr\u003epresident of the American Accounting Association–I also programmed\u003cbr\u003echoose- your- own- adventure stories in BASIC, circa 1987, eagerly anticipated the logic puzzles in the next installment of \u003ci\u003eGames \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, and\u003cbr\u003edesigned multilevel dungeons on graph paper. In an especially cruel\u003cbr\u003etwist, my mother is a psychoanalyst, so I was especially aware how\u003cbr\u003ethese pursuits were likely to affect my social and emotional development\u003cbr\u003e(adversely).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBack to geekification:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the sepia tones of yesteryear, we rocketeers remained geek kings\u003cbr\u003eand queens of only the rocket club (and–in the spirit of full disclosure–\u003cbr\u003elater the jazz band and the math and chess clubs. Wow, this is actually\u003cbr\u003erather cathartic). Today, with highly specialized knowledge of all sorts\u003cbr\u003edriving the world, it is as if more and more people are clamoring for\u003cbr\u003einclusion in these clubs. Everyone now wants and needs information,\u003cbr\u003eleading to a much wider pool of adoration for the alpha geeks in each\u003cbr\u003ediscipline.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt may be no revelation that yesterday’s geeks rule today’s world.\u003cbr\u003eA quote widely misattributed to Bill Gates: “Don’t make fun of geeks\u003cbr\u003ebecause one day you will end up working for one.” But with most of\u003cbr\u003esociety now acting as phytoplankton at the base of the ecosystems in\u003cbr\u003ewhich geeks are alpha predators, we are not only driving the traditional\u003cbr\u003egeek fields, but we’re starting to drive \u003ci\u003ecool \u003c\/i\u003eas well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor example, imagine a twenty- four- year- old dude with an uneven\u003cbr\u003epeach- fuzz beard, wearing a green foam E \u003cb\u003e= \u003c\/b\u003emc2 hat, a red Che Guevara\u003cbr\u003eshirt, and Converse All Stars, and listening to an iPod while riding a longboard to his job as a Web designer. By any definition, this person is a\u003cbr\u003egeek. This person is also very, very cool. He probably owns an island in\u003cbr\u003eSecond Life and has an algorithmic tattoo, too. Women want him, and\u003cbr\u003emen want to be him. (We assume he dates a girl with piercings.) And with\u003cbr\u003ethis shift in cool, we see that instead of struggling to join society at large\u003cbr\u003eas we have always done in the past, now society at large is joining us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOK, now that you are versed in hypothetical, external geekification,\u003cbr\u003eit’s time for a bit of self- examination (no, you needn’t undress). Does\u003cbr\u003ewhat you know affect how you act? In light conversation, do you unintentionally inject your personal geekery? Does this make things a little\u003cbr\u003eawkward? Last Friday, instead of trudging through another of these\u003cbr\u003eawkward conversations, did you decide to order Chinese again (and eat\u003cbr\u003eit while watching \u003ci\u003eRed Dwarf \u003c\/i\u003ereruns and\/or blogging about it)? Do your\u003cbr\u003efriends and family buy you books with “geek” in the title?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re a geek. Go\u003cbr\u003eahead and skip to this book’s first entry. Go on, you know you want to.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut maybe you thought, \u003ci\u003eOh shit! After reflection I’m \u003c\/i\u003enot \u003ci\u003ea geek and will thus be relegated to a lifetime of groveling at the feet of my great geek overlords. Oh how I wish I could be a geek too! \u003c\/i\u003eOr you might’ve answered, \u003ci\u003eOh shit! I used to be a geek but have spent the last f fifteen years perfecting a veneer of social competence in order to pimp real estate and have thus let my geek credentials lapse. Whatever shall I do?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eNever fear: you hold in your hands the secrets you need to function–\u003cbr\u003eagain or for the first time–as a geek. In fact, if you read and enjoy this\u003cbr\u003ebook, you will necessarily be transformed into a geek by the simple act\u003cbr\u003eof partaking in the geekiest of geek activities: the enjoyment of knowledge\u003cbr\u003efor its own sake (Descartes: “I think, therefore I am [a geek]”). With\u003cbr\u003ethis book, you, too, can gain the cultural knowledge necessary to peek\u003cbr\u003ebehind the Wizard’s curtain–to glimpse the Matrix–and can thus join\u003cbr\u003ein the experience of \u003ci\u003etotal world domination. \u003c\/i\u003eThink of this book like a benevolent werewolf, ready to give you a friendly nip in the jugular; come\u003cbr\u003enext full moon, you’ll be howling too.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd then, during the geek uprising, when your IT guy rediscovers\u003cbr\u003ehis Klingon spirit and the Web- widgets girl down the hall goes \u003ci\u003eXena:\u003cbr\u003eWarrior Princess, \u003c\/i\u003eyou will be able, when the pogrom reaches your cubicle, to demonstrate complex handmade shadow puppets against the\u003cbr\u003ewhiteboard and recite pi to at least the fifth digit, thus proving your allegiance and claiming your rightful spot in the coming Geek World Order.\u003cbr\u003e(Which, you have to admit, is worth the price of a book.)","brand":"Crown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302338089189,"sku":"NP9780307450340","price":13.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307450340.jpg?v=1767739480","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-geeks-guide-to-world-domination-isbn-9780307450340","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}