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The Tim Ferriss Show

#800: Ev Williams — The Art of Pivoting (e.g., Odeo to Twitter), Strategic Quitting, The Dangers of Premature Scaling, Must-Read Books, and More

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Longform Interviews, Startups, Tools Of Titans, Productivity, Tim Ferris, Tim Ferriss, Timothy Ferriss Show, Timothy Ferriss, Entrepreneurship, The 4-hour Workweek, The Tim Ferriss Show, Business

4.617.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ev Williams is the co-founder of Mozi, a new social network that helps you connect in person with the people you care about. Over the past 25 years, Ev has co-founded several companies that have helped shape the modern internet—including Blogger, Medium, and Twitter. This episode was recorded live at Diggnation, where digg.com was relaunched. Go to digg.com and sign up to get early access when invites go out.

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Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Start

[00:05:35] Kevin Rose starts the party like it's 2004.

[00:07:27] Ev's first internet product.

[00:08:54] How technology became social for Ev.

[00:10:52] The simple idea behind Mozi.

[00:12:05] Strategic quitting vs. sunk-cost perseverance.

[00:18:36] How Odeo begat Twitter.

[00:22:01] Twitter's $11,000 SXSW 2007 inflection point.

[00:23:45] Ev's hopes for Mozi's evolution.

[00:25:02] Favorite books and information inputs.

[00:30:45] Raising a generation to co-exist with AI.

[00:33:12] Ev's billboard.

[00:35:56] How Ev learned to manage his feelings.

[00:37:16] Facing strangers as an introvert with the Hoffman Process.

[00:39:57] Recently adopted habits that have galvanized positive change.

[00:42:44] The silver lining of being fired from Twitter.

[00:45:18] Contemplating how the universe works with The One by Heinrich Päs.

[00:47:04] How Ev stocks his reading list arsenal.

[00:50:26] Big thoughts on a Medium regret.

[00:52:47] Resisting the urge to bloat Mozi with superfluous features.

[00:55:40] How Mozi balances privacy with utility.

[00:57:40] Parting thoughts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs, this is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss show, where it is my job each interview to deconstruct world-class performers, to tease out the habits, routines, influences, and resources that you can apply to your own lives, from people from every discipline imaginable ranging, from entertainment to the military to technology and

0:21.7

beyond. Today, my guest is Ev Williams, and what a story he has. Ev is the co-founder and chairman

0:28.3

of Mosey, a new social network that helps you connect in person with the people you care about

0:33.7

most. Over the past 25 years, Ev has co-founded several companies that have helped shape

0:39.0

the modern internet, including blogger, medium, and Twitter. Ev is also the co-founder of

0:44.1

obvious ventures, an investment firm that focuses on world positive companies addressing

0:48.8

major systemic problems. Ev grew up on a farm in Clarks, Nebraska, has two sons, and lives

0:53.9

mostly in the

0:54.9

Bay Area. This particular episode, this conversation was recorded live in Austin, Texas,

1:01.0

at the Dig Nation relaunch. That's Dignation. Show for the show itself, and that is where

1:07.8

dig.com was relaunched. It was recently acquired by its original founder,

1:12.7

my good friend Kevin Rose, and Reddit co-founder Alexis O'Hanian, formerly Arch Nemesis,

1:18.1

but they have joined forces and invited me along for all the fun and surprises as they celebrated

1:23.8

the relaunch. Go to dig.com and sign up to get early access when the invites go out.

1:29.1

One more time, dig.com.

1:30.6

That's DIGG.com.

1:32.8

You can find Mosey, that is Eves' newest creation, at Mosey.

1:37.5

That's available on iOS right now.

1:40.0

You can find Obvious Ventures at obvious.com, and you can find him on Twitter that is also known as

1:46.6

X at Ev, at EV. We're going to get right into this wide-ranging conversation with just a few words

1:53.2

first from the people who make this podcast possible. I am always on the hunt for protein sources

1:58.9

that don't require sacrifices in taste or nutrition.

...

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