Five Takeaways from Everything All At Once
CHANGE IS NYE THE SCIENCE GUY ON HOW TO FIX THE WORLD
Everything All at Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap into Radical Curiosity and Solve Any Problem By Bill Nye Rodale Books 384 pp; $ 23.99
Bill Nye’s Wikipedia page bills him by turns an engineer, actor and ardent climate change advocate. But stealing a moment with Bill before we hit the stage for our live audience Q& A at his latest book’s Toronto launch, I’m not sure that middle title — actor — rings entirely true. Off-mic and in the flesh, to speak with author William Sanford Nye is to speak with Bill Nye the Science Guy himself: eyebrows, bow tie, big grin and all.
My recorder’s red light hasn’t begun blinking before Bill offers his first lesson — a little primer on the heat- induced pliability of my coffee cup’s accompanying swizzle stick — and conversational banter comes just as quick. Within a few minutes I’ve learned that he’s a milk-and-sugar man whose signature bow ties are also his biggest indulgence. His favourite neckpiece, as it happens, is from a small shop in Vancouver: black with white polka dots and piping to match. “Beautiful,” he says, adjusting the salmon- hued accessory he chose instead for today.
I’m firmly of the generation educated, enraptured or otherwise endlessly entertained by Bill Nye’s eponymous TV program, a half- hour of slapstick chemistry and clever song syndicated weekly on TVOntario from 1994 to 1999. Bill came clutch for us kids past keeping up with Sharon, Lois, and Bram, his show sandwiched between Kratt’s Creatures and Crawlspace on the station’s afternoon schedule. I knew Bill in the way so many do: eccentric and prone to theatrics, long limbs flailing in flood- legged dress pants, signature bow tie keeping things together up top. Bill’s homemade water bottle rockets might’ve made middle school classrooms a riot zone, but hell if we didn’t learn a little about gas and molecules and mayhem along the way.
Bill Nye the Science Guy continued to delight kids long after its 100- episode run, becoming a favourite crutch for teachers in the waning months of spring semester. When a 20- something science student raised her hand to share story of watching Bill Nye in late- elementary science class, the 500+ crowd jammed inside Indigo Yorkdale for Bill’s l aunch cheered deafeningly, nodding and recalling their own memories of the same. Though ages ranged from stroller to walker, the bulk of the crowd would’ve been in a preadolescent knowledge- hungry sweet spot when Bill ruled the airwaves, his science giving enough inspiration to steer several at- tendees into STEM degrees today.
That’s where Nye started, too, many decades back, in Cornell University’s prestigious mechanical engineering program. He graduated to work at Boeing — and good work, at that, there inventing the hydraulic resonance suppressor technology still in use on 747 airplanes today — but Bill’s unbridled energy and a fondness for performance led him to pursue television instead. In 1986 the science guy began his screen career in earnest as a writer/actor on Seattle sketch comedy show Almost Live!. Somewhere between Bill also won runner-up in a Steve Martin lookalike contest. Questionable judgment aside, it did help boost the burgeoning performer’s profile in a new and otherwise unforgiving industry
Almost Live! was hardly a science program, but Nye found ways to wedge his know- how into the show anyway, quick to correct cast mates’ knowledge with one- line facty quips — an educational if not slightly annoying tendency that earned Bill his best-known moniker. Several pitches and one pilot later, Bill Nye the Science Guy was signed full-time for television on PBS in 1994. Having swapped hangar for Hollywood, it’s hard to resist asking Bill what he might suggest for us infamously antsy millennials today.
“Don’t be afraid to change your mind,” he declares, audience taking another ( of any, really) opportunity to applaud enthusiastically. Scanning the room I notice several attendees who couldn’t f i nd standing room have taken to repeatedly riding the store’s escalator instead.
These are, after all, the kids or parents- or grandparents- of kids raised by the now 61- yearold man on stage. STEM students and space nerds clap loudest, introducing questions with awe and genuine adulation, crediting Bill Nye the Science Guy for their respective careers today. When it’s time to sign books, Bill obliges the additional 200- odd line of fans who’ve jammed Yorkdale’s front entrance — many wearing NASA shirts and the like — so it’s lucky Bill Nye’s a good sport for selfies, too.
Science is the key to our future, and if you don’t believe in science, then you’re holding everybody back. — Bill Nye DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE YOUR MIND.
Bill Nye the Science Guy isn’t short on worldly experience, but maintains life’s most difficult feat has been cataloguing it all for his third book for older readers, Everything All at Once: How to Unleash Your Inner Nerd, Tap into Radical Curiosity and Solve Any Problem. Here’s what we learned:
1 So you want to be a nerd.
Bill Nye, perhaps unsurprisingly, is a self- proclaimed nerd, proud to promote the perks of scholastic indulgence and unabashed affection for problem- solving outside the classroom. But Nye says the title isn’t for everyone, and a few prerequisites must be met to mint oneself a nerd proper: 1) Persistence in the dogged pursuit of overcoming life’s challenges, 2) Resilience in the face of obstacles along that path, 3) Humility in the confrontation of failure, and 4) Patience for the process, long and tired and winding as it may be.
2 Solving for X.
The author was a boy scout ( of course he was a boy scout), and many of his book’s best lessons come from youthful days past. Recounting a fateful swim exam testing his life- saving know- how on a 200- poundplus camp counsellor, Nye recounts the equation behind most great feats: “I had the training and the knowledge; the X factors were courage and commitment.” It turns out Bill’s math was good, and those X factors wound up winning him a passing grade on the test that day, and making a good lesson for how we can approach problem- solving in daily life, too.
3 Heated debate.
Nye’s no stranger to the fray; one quick YouTube search will have any Science Guy enthusiast down a rabbit hole of Nye’s various network appearances in the last several years, joining political debates on natural disasters and scientific advancements. Lately, though, Nye’s turned all attention to what he calls “a bigger challenge than any single problem we’ve faced before”: climate change. To confront the threat of global warming, Nye suggests applying the advice that titles this book, urging engineers and pol- iticians to do everything all at once. That is: build wind turbines while passing new legislation; crack down on climate change deniers and enforce stricter regulations on large companies; install photovoltaic panels tomorrow so that solar power can create jobs, clean the air, and boost local economies, too. Nothing left behind and nothing left to wait — all of it altogether and all at once indeed.
4 The upside- down pyramid of design.
In the mid- 1980s, Nye found work as an engineer at Wyoming firm Sundstrand Data Control, where he helped design avionic parts for some of North America’s biggest airplane companies. There, Nye met senior designer Jack Morrow, and from Jack he learned an approach to product manufacturing that still serves our Science Guy today: the upside-down pyramid — the best way to go about designing anything of worth. Procurement takes place at the pyramid’s smallest point, and is, as Bill puts it, “where you start to really shell out the cash.” But, from there, you’re able to use those raw materials to make parts; another layer up and people are putting pieces from the previous stage together; jump to the next and your raw resources are now a product ready for market. He likes this pyramid analogy best because it demonstrates that the sexiest part of any design task — public marketing and distribution — simply can’t happen without the little point of investment it teeters on to begin.
5 Espousing intellect.
If you’ve already met Nye’s nerdy prerequisites, his rules for staying in the club apply just as well. In the waning chapters of Everything All At Once, Nye proclaims the Nerd Code of Conduct, a series of edicts vital to maintaining one’s status and built to protect his intellectual colleagues from the dangers of false science and scientists ( a passive aggressive nod to those climate change deniers he’s been after for a decade now): 1) Be fair and be transparent; 2) Don’t fake what you don’t know; 3) Give facts, not fairy tales; don’t describe the world as you wish it would be; 4) Respect the evidence; 5) Charge ahead only after you’ve tried and trusted the designs you’ve made for that future.