Written by Ryan North in 2022
Synopsis:
“It would be easy—too easy—in writing these heists to assure you of my own confidence that they’ll work. The end result would be you thinking me a poor deluded egoist, some lost soul high on the fumes of his own imagination. This is fair. So instead, I have chosen a much more difficult but rewarding task. I won’t convince you that I could pull off these heists.
I’m going to convince you that you can.
This text is your supervillain education, and it begins right now.”
Covering topics such as cloning dinosaurs, digging to the center of the Earth to hold it hostage, and living forever, How to Take Over the World is a hilarious yet not-all-that-ridiculous guide to delusions of grandeur. Presented as a genuine resource, each chapter includes an executive summary, budget, and consequences if you’re caught.
Review: I had a blast with this book. North approaches childish ideas with scientific rigor and often highly intellectual humor, and the author’s own excitement conveyed in his many tangents, sidebars, and footnotes is infectious.
I follow three webcomic artists with a scientific background who have recently written a pop science book (Ryan North: "Dinosaur Comics", Randall Munroe: "XKCD", and Zach Weinersmith: "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal"). I’ve read parts of Munroe’s What If, and, while its short, punchy chapters about all sorts of questions are entertaining, North’s choices to stick to a unifying theme and directly advise the reader gave the book much more heart. I’ve forgotten each of the answers I enjoyed in What If, whereas I know some parts of How to Take Over the World will stick with me forever. Most notably, the final chapter addresses how to leave a message for the future. North outlines a new detailed plan for each logarithmic increase in time: 1 year, 10 years, 100 years, up to 100,000,000,000 years. The steady walkthrough left me marveling at the universe and laughing at the same time—and North’s writing implies this has been his motivation all along.
Strengths:
The book gives the reader the ego of a supervillain. It’s a lot of fun to be addressed in this manner: “Without exception, everyone who thought they’d found a path to immortality was absolutely wrong, this idea has a failure rate of 100%, and not even a single human being has managed to live forever in the 13.8 billion years the universe has existed. Not one. But then again, it’s equally true to say that in all those 13.8 billion years, there’s never been a human being quite like you.”
North’s explanations of computer architecture (in discussing how to destroy the internet) and high-frequency trading were helpful frameworks, and generally the author conveys complex information effectively.
Weaknesses:
Many of the illustrations and captions are weak and could’ve been left out. However, they’re worth it for the joke that introduces them: “Illustrations by Carly Monardo, an associate of mine, are peppered throughout the text because illustrations rule and authors who keep pictures out of their books are cowards, terrified that their slight words will be upstaged by any proximity to an intuitive, evocative, and honestly more charming visual medium.”
The Time Travel chapter fell flat for me.
North shies away from mentioning anything legitimately harmful to maintain the book’s wholesome tone. His discussion of climate change and a few other ethical tangents are forced into an otherwise smooth read, and they may not have the desired effect of educating readers on the issues North wants to discuss.
Rating: 17/20 loopholes in the international treaties surrounding Antarctica
Ideal Setting: Read this book when news about politics gets you thinking, “I could run society so much better than this.”
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