Tim Urban (author)

Urban was born in Newton, Massachusetts. In his childhood, Urban befriended Andrew Finn, who would later become his business partner for multiple ventures.{{cite web |last=Sinow |first=Catherine |title=Tim Urban Interview: The Unusual Power of Wait But Why |url=https://tedium.co/2022/12/16/wait-but-why-tim-urban-interview/ |date=16 December 2022}}

Urban graduated from Harvard University in 2004.{{cite news |last=Roberts |first=Dave |title=Tech nerds are smart. But they can't seem to get their heads around politics. |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/8/27/9214015/tech-nerds-politics |work=Vox |date=27 August 2015}} During his time at Harvard, Urban participated in a study where he was locked in a windowless room for 12 days. He was compensated $3,500 for his participation.

In 2005, Urban founded his first blog, Underneath the Turban.

In 2011, Urban and Finn co-founded ArborBridge, an educational technology company catered to international students planning to attend college in the United States.{{cite news |last=Davis |first=Noah |title=How Do You Make a Living, Email Newsletter Writer? |url=https://psmag.com/economics/make-living-email-newsletter-writer-93394/ |work=PSMag |date=30 October 2014}} The company was originally a sister company to the Launch Education Group, also co-founded by Urban and Finn in 2007,{{cite news |last=Doll |first=Jenn |title=Preparing for a World in Which No One Does His Own Work |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/welcome-world-which-no-one-does-his-own-work/321018/ |work=The Atlantic |date=29 November 2012}}{{cite web |title=ArborBridge and Launch Education Group Announce Merger |url=https://www.prweb.com/releases/arborbridge_and_launch_education_group_announce_merger/prweb11678650.htm |format=Press release |date=19 March 2014}} but was later merged into ArborBridge in 2014.

In 2013, Urban and Finn co-founded Wait But Why, a long-form blog. Urban is a writer and illustrator for the blog. In 2015, in direct collaboration with Elon Musk, he created a series of posts about Tesla and SpaceX,{{cite news |last=Boran |first=Marie |title=Elon Musk outlines vision for 'conceptual telepathy' |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/elon-musk-outlines-vision-for-consensual-telepathy-1.3059299 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=27 April 2017}} and later broke down the concepts behind Neuralink.{{cite news |last=Masunaga |first=Samantha |title=A quick guide to Elon Musk's new brain-implant company, Neuralink |url=https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-elon-musk-neuralink-20170421-htmlstory.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=21 April 2017}}

In 2016, Urban gave a TED Talk about his experiences with procrastination. As of 2025, the TED Talk has amassed 75 million views, making it the second most viewed TED Talk in history. In the talk, he described the brain of a procrastinator being distracted by an "instant gratification monkey" and saved at the last minute by a "panic monster". To him, procrastinators follow a reverse of the Eisenhower matrix, a method in which tasks are relegated into four quadrants with the first containing the most pressing and important tasks which contribute to the person's long-term goals with each following quadrant of lesser goals with the fourth being of no importance. He finds that the "instant gratification monkey" keeps them mostly in quadrants 3 and 4 doing unimportant, non-urgent tasks and only working on quadrant 1 when the "panic monster" emerges to compel them due to a looming deadline.{{cite news |last=Swanson |first=Ana |title=The real reasons you procrastinate — and how to stop |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/27/why-you-cant-help-read-this-article-about-procrastination-instead-of-doing-your-job/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=27 April 2016}}

In 2023, Urban published the book What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies.{{Cite news |last=Robinson |first=Nathan J. |date=2023-03-04 |title=Why Centrism Is Morally Indefensible |url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2023/03/why-centrism-is-morally-indefensible |access-date=2024-12-09 |work=Current Affairs |language=en |issn=2471-2647}}{{Cite web |last=Zimet |first=Saul |date=2023-01-25 |title=Book Review: What's Our Problem? by Tim Urban |url=https://humanprogress.org/book-review-whats-our-problem-by-tim-urban/ |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Human Progress |language=en-US}} The book was endorsed by Elon Musk on X.{{cite web |last=Quiggle |first=Jeffrey |title=Elon Musk Just Gave This Book a Glowing Endorsement |url=https://www.thestreet.com/personalities/elon-musk-recommends-this-self-help-book-for-societies |website=TheStreet |date=21 February 2023 |access-date=October 31, 2023}} The book was also praised in a review by Luigi Mangione, which Urban dismissed, stating that Mangione's interpretation was "Very much not the point of the book."{{cite news |last1=Malone Kircher |first1=Madison |last2=Bernstein |first2=Joseph |title=Suspect in C.E.O. Killing Showed Interest on Social Media in Self-Improvement |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/style/unitedhealthcare-ceo-suspect-social-media.html |work=New York Times |date=9 December 2024}}

• The Story Of Us: A Deep Dive Into Human Evolution (2022) {{ISBN|9781787633957}}
• What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies (2023) {{ISBN|9798987722602}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU TED Talk - Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator, 2016]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urban, Tim}}

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Writers from Newton, Massachusetts

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:American bloggers

Category:American transhumanists

Category:American male bloggers