The Rudiments of Wisdom

The Cover of Tim Hunkin's Book, the Rudiments of Wisdom

What is Wisdom? Well I don’t know, but I suspect that it begins with learning, and for many many years I have been an admirer of Tim Hunkin’s ability to take a complex topic and present it straightforwardly to anyone who could read a few paragraphs and enjoy a silly cartoon. Tim Hunkin doesn’t offer wisdom, but he does suggest that the rudiments of any subject, however apparently abstract, can me made accessible. In a way he was the forerunner of many ‘<Complex Topic> made simple’ guides with his simple text and delightful pictures

I was reminded of him the other day when I came across some videos he made for Channel 4 in the 1980’s on the Secret Lives of Machines. The videos delighted me because they took their time – they spent 30 minutes explaining how a vacuum cleaner >actually< works – something unthinkable for a modern day video editor. Nowadays these programs would be just 7 minute slots in a magazine programme.

Anyway, for the record:

• Here is the link to the videos
• Here is Tim Hunkin’s site –
• and here are the entire series of cartoons explaining (almost) everything.
• And finally, here is a link to a video of a delightfully pointless machine which cooks popcorn…one kernel at a time 🙂

 

Tags: Secret Lives of Machines, Tim Hunkin