20VC: Scaling Wait But Why to 600,000 Subs; Behind the Scenes on The Research Process, How to Learn Entirely New Topics Fast, The Writing Process and Building Good Habits & The Distribution Process and the Business Behind the Blog with Tim Urban

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The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4 • 637 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2023

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tim Urban is the writer/illustrator and co-founder of Wait But Why, a long-form, stick-figure-illustrated website with over 600,000 subscribers and a monthly average of half a million visitors. He has produced dozens of viral articles on a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence to social anxiety to humans becoming a multi-planetary species. Tim’s 2016 TED main stage talk is the third most-watched TED talk in history with 66 million views. In 2023, Tim published his bestselling book What’s Our Problem? A Self Help Book for Societies.

In Today's Episode with Tim Urban We Discuss:

1. The Founding of Wait by Why:

What was the a-ha moment for Tim that Wait but Why should be his life's work and sole focus?
What does Tim know now that he wishes he had known when he started?
What does Tim believe he is running away from? Why is he so fearful of constraints?

2. Wait But Why: The Scaling Journey to 600,000 Subs:

What was the first piece to really go viral? How did that change the trajectory?
What single piece is Tim most proud of? What piece is he least proud of?
What has been the hardest element of scaling Wait But Why?
What was the most surprising and unexpected elements of Wait But Why's scaling?

3. Topic Selection: Choosing What To Write:

What does the process look like for Tim when deciding what topic to write about?
How does Tim know what his audience will want to hear about vs what they will not?
What topics has Tim thought would be interesting but post initial research, are not?

4. The Writing Process:

How does Tim approach the writing process? How has his changed over time?
What mechanisms does Tim put in place to avoid writers block?
What are some of Tim's biggest tips to aspiring writers and authors?

5. The Distribution Process:

How does Tim approach distributing the content once produced? What works? What does not?
Why did Tim choose newsletter, Twitter and Instagram as his channels of choice?
How important has the newsletter been to the growth of the business?

6. AI: Super-Intelligence and The Future:

On reviewing his pieces on AI back in 2015, what does he believe he got right? What would he change with the benefit of hindsight?
Is Tim more or less positive looking forward at AI proliferating through all of society?
What is Tim most concerned about in the world right now?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm incredibly optimistic about what could happen with health and human lifespan and things
0:03.5	that had stressed me out, like the problems we currently have, I feel very optimistic about.
0:08.2	The problem is that the same thing that makes me feel optimistic about those, which is AI,
0:12.6	also makes me wonder whether the negatives of that thing are going to completely overwhelm the
0:18.4	positives. So if you don't have a stable society, none of this matters.
0:21.6	So seven years ago I remember sitting in a cafe in San Mateo and I got sent this incredible blog post by a friend on artificial intelligence.
0:29.6	It was my first piece of weight by why content and I've been one of Tim Urban's biggest fans ever since.
0:34.6	He is the master of taking very complex things and making
0:38.4	them immensely simple and understandable. Tim has scaled Wait But Why to 600,000 subscribers
0:44.5	and a monthly average of half a million visitors. Tim's 2016 TED mainstage talk is the
0:50.4	third most watched TED talk in history with 66 million views.
0:55.0	This was two content creators in discussion today.
0:57.0	There was no script, just us shooting the shit.
1:00.0	I hope you enjoy it. It was so much fun to do.
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	...

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