Online Magazine Probes How Stuff Works

Posted on February 18, 2000

An online magazine called HowStuffWorks.com is finding success with its approach to demystifying everyday life through articles, such as How a Car Engine Works, How Caffeine Works and How Tattoos Work. The 19 month old educational magazine is the brainchild of professor-turned-entrepreneur Marshall Brain. HowStuffWorks.com receives over 650,000 unique visitors each month, and Brain gets hundreds of email comments and suggestions from across the globe each week.

"We offer something for everyone - from the middle school kid who's trying to learn how a smoke detector works for a homework assignment; to his parents, who are trying to keep up with him; to teachers looking for good, high-quality classroom material; to the guy who just wants to fix his water heater," Brain said. "That's why we're heading in the direction of writing about how everything in the world works!" When Brain began writing How Stuff Works articles "for fun" in July 1998, he says he was writing for the teenager he once was, a curious kid who loved to take things apart and read magazines about taking things apart. "I started out writing about things like engines and electronics because that's what I was interested in as a teenager," he said.

Brain also recalled his youthful frustration at not finding simple, concise explanations about how these things worked. "Much of what I read was over my head," he said. "And since my father passed away when I was 15, there was no one to explain things to me. When I started How Stuff Works, my idea was to create a place where people could really learn about stuff without having that 'over my head' feeling. I wanted to make these topics clear for everyone, to sort of level the playing field."