Earthquakes in China. Terrorists in India. Protests at City Hall. A never-ending Democratic presidential race. Jimmy Fallon to host Late Night.

I know: Sometimes it seems like the world is coming to an end. But the actual Earth is much harder to destroy than you might suspect.

The Earth is built to last. It is a 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you’ve had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will be easy.

This quote is from a handy, comprehensive guide how to destroy the Earth over at qntm.org. There are actually quite a few ways to do it, including antimatter, fission, and overspinning, as well as a list of common pitfalls that may seem effective, but actually won’t destroy the Earth at all. It’s an invaluable guide for supervillains everywhere.

Without a plan, you have nothing. Sooner or later you WILL hit a snag and find yourself unable to continue: government agents will start lasering their way through your door, or you’ll have your superweapon ready and armed but nowhere safe to stand when you fire it, or you’ll just plain run out of money. You need to plan for as many eventualities as you can conceive of, as early as possible. When I say early, I mean early: ideally your plan should be at least 50% complete by the time you leave high school, because your career choices will be a very significant factor.

Check out the entire article here.