Famous Failures

Tim Urban is best known as the writer and illustrator behind the incredibly popular blog Wait But Why, which has garnered millions of unique page views and famous fans like Elon Musk. His deeply researched long-form posts on everything from artificial intelligence to procrastination buck the conventional wisdom that internet writing should be short or SEO optimized to be successful. A former film composer and professional tutor, Tim has parlayed his conversational writing style into a sideline of speaking engagements. His 2016 TED talk on procrastination has been viewed more than 30 million times. You can subscribe to the Wait But Why Newsletter at https://waitbutwhy.com In this episode Tim and I discuss: Why he wrote a 90 page college thesis in only 72 hours Strategies for overcoming procrastination What motivated Tim to give up his music career to become a professional blogger How Tim developed his writing craft in the sandbox of blogging The value of experimentation, having fun, and drawing stick figures