Having been diagnosed with ADD recently myself, I wonder if Randall has it as well? He clearly is highly intelligent, you just has to look at his resumee for that, but starting with an ordinary and simple question and continuing running with it in completely random directions until you are too exhausted to go on, is just how it manifests for me in the most visible way.
I got a suspicion when I had learned more about it and kept reading the comics, but they are short gags because of the medium. But the what-ifs are even more remarkable examples.
And really, I love the Future Timeline comic to no end, probably because I also would spend all those hours on google to make that joke happen if I had the idea first.
Or this: http://xkcd.com/87/
Or this: http://xkcd.com/173/
Actually, I feel like I can stop wondering.In response to concerns about the radiation released by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, and to remedy what he described as "confusing" reporting on radiation levels in the media, Munroe created a chart of comparative radiation exposure levels. The chart was rapidly adopted by print and online journalists in several countries, including being linked to by online writers for The Guardian and The New York Times. As a result of requests for permission to reprint the chart and to translate it into Japanese, Munroe placed it in the public domain, but requested that his non-expert status should be clearly stated in any reprinting.