How I Work

My Favourite Tip: Tim Urban - Does a picture really speak a thousand words?

08.23.2023 - By Amantha ImberPlay

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On his enormously popular blog, Wait But Why, Tim Urban writes about some pretty heavy topics. He’s covered North Korea, the state of American politics and culture, and Elon Musk’s rise to fame, to name just a few. So you might be surprised when you click onto the blog for the first time and see it’s overrun with… stick figure drawings? 

Tim’s writing style is playful and personable, but his unique illustrations do a lot of the heavy lifting to make his work so eye-catching and so memorable. Whether it’s a graph demonstrating just how few weeks make up a human life, or characters representing our inner demons, Tim’s constantly seeking novel ways to get his point across. 

Tim explains how he decides when to illustrate versus when to let his words do the talking, and highlights the most common cases where words alone don’t quite cut it.  

Connect with Tim on Twitter, or his website Wait But Why

You can find the full interview here: Tim Urban on seeing the bigger picture and beating procrastination

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CREDITS

Produced by Inventium

Host: Amantha Imber

Sound Engineer: Martin Imber See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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