Tim Urban @waitbutwhy Twitter profile | Pikagi

Pikagi

Tim Urban

@waitbutwhy

823,218

Followers

802

Following

1,754

Media

6,889

Statuses

Writer, infant

https://t.co/0Ww4pWX5nc

Joined March 2013

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

Pinned Tweet

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

My book What's Our Problem? is now available. The book introduces a new framework for thinking about our chaotic political environment. With 303 drawings, it's a toolbox for understanding our societies, our group dynamics, and our own minds. Get it here:

Tweet card media

What's Our Problem? A Self-Help Book For Societies

Available today

994

2K

14K

Last Seen Profiles

@iamzahryamaee

@maisiecora

@kazuki_matsuiwa

@ihb_oeaw

@MariaTrichmond1

@McDonaldsUKNews

@canepa_gladis

@Kayne_Seys

@fumiko_naga

@kalobees

@k_myon_RPS13

@YOUNG_ZAV

@Pillar_Andrews

@YOUNG_ZAV

@mansyuniki

@suke2ji

@SexyPrince88

@hydrokisser

@loperwrestling

@Cubalixa1

@lawsofsacae

@ASNKidney

@metmidnights

@lit4tms

@MGMRewards

@itsbadmercy

@vaersac

@hikinikutocome2

@inyloop

@liulianjingrua

@mannu_meha

@leytonkins

@lcswillems

@iamdunoutere

@himari_nohira

@SurriaJabeen

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

In case Twitter is making you anxious, here’s a man making a traditional teapot. [tiktok: zishacraftsman]

1K

13K

82K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Population density thread because you and I both know you have nothing better to do. Let's start with this cool way to visualize population density, by @undertheraedar . The height of each spike displays the population density in that location.

Tweet media one

1K

10K

63K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

We think a lot about those black lines, forgetting that it’s all still in our hands.

Tweet media one

345

14K

60K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Everything we call civilization was invented in the last 500 generations—way too short a time for our bodies and brains to re-optimize. We're a bunch of primates in a totally unnatural environment, trying our best. Good thing to keep in mind!

Tweet media one

1K

11K

59K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Imagine what ancient people thought when something like this happened

1K

5K

57K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

“If you only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.” Montesquieu said this 300 years ago. We’re still working on this one.

587

9K

55K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

21 thoughts from 2021 I'd like to take into 2022:

Tweet media one

757

11K

55K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Pro tip: When you wake up in the middle of the night, the worst way to fall back asleep is to open Twitter

1K

3K

51K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

It's super important to support marginalized people in places where it's popular to do so

Tweet media one

480

6K

45K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

New year, new you

Tweet media one

305

7K

46K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

Good job everyone

Tweet media one

567

3K

45K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

If Andromeda were brighter, this is how big it would be in our night sky.

Tweet media one

287

5K

43K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

I keep thinking about this today

Tweet media one

476

5K

41K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

What’s the craziest conspiracy theory you think might be true?

7K

2K

39K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

Feed a man a fish, feed him for a night. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to make AI, the AI does all the fishing and everyone is fed forever. Then the AI accidentally kills all the people and the fish win.

508

4K

39K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

9 months

Relationship tip: when your partner makes an awful but innocent mistake (leaves their phone in the cab, forgets their passport when heading to the airport for an international flight, drops and shatters a beloved item, gets in a fender bender, etc.), don't get mad at them. It…

829

4K

39K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

At the center of our planet is a solid sphere of iron & nickel the size of India (1,500mi across) that's as hot as the surface of the sun, and its interaction w the molten iron surrounding it generates the magnetic field that keeps our atmosphere from blowing away. pic: phys-org

Tweet media one

1K

3K

36K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Five cities, then and now. Somewhere today there's a quiet fishing village that will be a 2100 megalopolis. Hong Kong: 1964 | 2016

Tweet media one

531

5K

37K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Hidreley Diao uses AI to capture what historical figures would look like if they were modern people. George Washington:

Tweet media one

414

6K

35K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

25 days

In 2017, I did something dumb. There was a total solar eclipse passing through the US, but I was in NY, far from the path. Was I really gonna get on a plane to see a cool thing for two minutes? Nah. I had shit to do. The day came. I put my stupid glasses on and saw the sun…

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

Tweet media four

988

3K

35K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Nintendo (founded 1889) and the Ottoman Empire coexisted (fell in 1922) for 33 years.

215

3K

33K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Some mantras for political thinking: Truth is hard. Humility is hard. Independent thinking is hard. Resisting tribalism is hard. Over and over, you will forget that these things are hard, and that's probably when you'll fail at them. 1/5

593

6K

32K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

The cumulative solar arrays that would power the world. Kinda weird that we haven't just done this yet. Image credit: @poweredbyart

Tweet media one

881

4K

31K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Enough is enough with early riser privilege

Tweet media one

274

3K

31K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

It's crazy that with an iPhone, a little Starlink antenna, and a solar power unit, you could live in an isolated cave in the mountains (or on a raft in the middle of the Pacific) and get a world-class education, start a business or art career, & make friends all around the world.

596

3K

29K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

One of the most incredible examples of a country changing its mind on an issue. Without free speech, the incredibly unpopular 1958 viewpoint that said "there's nothing wrong with interracial marriage" would never have seen the light of day.

Tweet media one

1K

3K

28K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

I graduated high school thinking I hated history, only to later realize it was my favorite thing. Good teaching should ignite curiosity.

521

2K

28K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Today, Elon tweeted this diagram by @SwipeWright , which sums up how a lot of people (including me) feel. Then a bunch of ppl responded w/ graphs showing that Republican politicians have moved farther right in that time than Dems have moved left. Here's what I think is happening:

@elonmusk

Elon Musk

2 years

Tweet media one

86K

195K

1M

2K

3K

27K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

We should probably start having more kids

Tweet media one

2K

3K

27K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 months

New year, new you

Tweet media one

202

4K

26K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

Monthly reminder about that big green tree

Tweet media one

123

4K

25K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

You’d have to compress Earth to this size (9 mm) to form a black hole. You’d have to compress the sun to 3 km and the moon to 0.1 mm (width of a human hair) to turn them into black holes. For every black hole out there, something THAT intense has happened. Image: @lpfproject

Tweet media one

536

2K

24K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

22 tweets from 2022 that might blow your mind: Let's start with what a water droplet looks like at 6,000fps. [nac Image Technology]

144

3K

24K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

I hope Japan actually does this

Tweet media one

1K

1K

24K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Email from Steve Jobs to himself, September 2010.

Tweet media one

229

3K

24K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Monthly reminder to go hug someone

Tweet media one

411

4K

23K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

My friend concisely sums up the last two months

Tweet media one

310

927

21K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Needle and thread under a microscope

Tweet media one

303

1K

21K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

A 5 megabyte hard drive in 1956 vs. 1 terabyte today. A terabyte hard drive in 1956 would be the size of a 40-story building.

Tweet media one

185

2K

19K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

30 years ago everyone left home without a phone every day. Just their wallet, keys, and thoughts. So weird.

618

2K

19K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

13 days

Incredible display of zealot's corner

1K

1K

19K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

22 thoughts from 2022 I'd like to take into 2023:

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Everything we call civilization was invented in the last 500 generations—way too short a time for our bodies and brains to re-optimize. We're a bunch of primates in a totally unnatural environment, trying our best. Good thing to keep in mind!

Tweet media one

1K

11K

59K

471

3K

18K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

Once you die you no longer experience the passage of time, so it’s as if eternity passes in an instant. As far as you’re concerned, the moment you die the universe reaches its final heat death state. So make the very most of this little window of consciousness—it’s all there is!

1K

2K

17K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

1) If all humans stood in a circle, it would be way bigger than the moon's orbit. 2) If we all stood together as a crowd, we'd fit in NYC. 3) If we all stood stacked, we'd fit in a 1km cube. 4) If you removed the empty space in human atoms, we'd all fit in an M&M.

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

Tweet media four

210

2K

17K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Whales evolved from a bizarre, vaguely whale-looking land animal called the Pakicetus that lived in Pakistan 50 million years ago.

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

838

2K

16K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

If you ever fantasize about having been an 1880s engineer working in Edison’s lab, apply to work at @neuralink .

443

1K

16K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

Pangaea gets the last laugh.

@Rainmaker1973

Massimo

3 years

How Earth will look in 250 million years according to plate tectonics theory

443

2K

8K

471

1K

16K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

No one “builds a house.” They lay one brick again and again and again and the end result is a house. A remarkable, glorious achievement is just what a long series of unremarkable, unglorious tasks looks like from far away. Procrastinators are bad at remembering this.

216

2K

16K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

A little breakdown of the situation:

Tweet media one

828

2K

15K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

People in the early 1900s thought soda was healthy. People in the 1950s thought white bread was healthy. People in the 1990s thought margarine was healthy. What's something most of us think is healthy today that future people will shake their heads at?

8K

1K

15K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

7 years

It's finally here: the full story on Neuralink. I knew the future would be nuts but this is a whole other level.

Tweet media one

754

6K

15K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

I get sad once a week that I wasn't alive during the moon landing

581

334

13K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 month

Will never be able to unsee it

@TerribleMaps

Terrible Maps

1 month

And people still think Earth is flat?

Tweet media one

661

11K

74K

131

1K

14K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

If I aired a highlight reel of your most selfish life moments and most shameful thoughts, you'd seem like an awful person. If I aired a reel of your best, kindest moments, you'd seem like a saint. But people aren't highlight reels, and the unedited cut is always a messy mix!

Tweet media one

183

2K

14K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

Go hug someone

Tweet media one

195

3K

14K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

Sine is blue, cosine is red. It's such bullshit that today's students get to have the internet explain stuff instead of having to figure it out yourself using incredibly awful textbooks.

@jagarikin

じゃがりきん

7 years

～サインとコサインは位相の差が90度の図～

23

3K

7K

135

2K

14K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

The James Webb mirror is a 6.5m/21ft beast. It can also see infrared light way better than Hubble, which will reveal galaxies so far away they’re redshifted beyond the visible spectrum. It’ll show us the first stars and formation of the first galaxies - our best time machine yet.

Tweet media one

123

1K

14K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

What's up with boys and school? Source:

Tweet media one

592

1K

13K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 months

Important lesson for young people: After childhood, there's no one to protect you from your own decisions. No one will stop you from getting yourself into a bad marriage, a job you hate, a mountain of debt, trouble with the law. You are the sole architect of your life path.

157

2K

13K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

I'm just gonna start posting this during every major wave of current events.

Tweet media one

153

3K

13K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Your family is weird [credit: ]

324

2K

13K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

What country has the best candy?

4K

469

12K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

2100s people will think it’s so weird that humans used to get pregnant like other mammals.

2K

3K

12K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

It seems impossible at the beginning of this video that the person filming might be in danger

@EverestToday

Everest Today

2 years

Check out this incredible avalanche footage from the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. Luckily, everyone survived. Account:

1K

27K

99K

119

1K

12K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

Everything we call civilization was invented in the last 500 generations—way too short a time for our bodies and brains to re-optimize. We're a bunch of forest primates in a totally unnatural environment, trying our little best. Someone needs to give our species a hug.

Tweet media one

151

3K

12K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

When you’re the boss of the ideas in your head, you’re always willing to revise them. When there’s no amount of evidence that will change your mind about something, it means that idea is your boss. Humility is the awareness that no idea is worthy of being your boss.

122

2K

12K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

When the Aztec Empire was founded, the University of Oxford was already an ancient, centuries old institution.

231

705

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

It sucks jumping in a cold pool but once you’re in it’s fine. Same pattern applies to: -Getting started with work each day -Having a hard conversation with a friend -Singing in front of people -Breaking up with someone Most of the time, jumping in is the hardest part.

120

2K

12K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

The trademark merry-go-round of human societies. Kinda worried we're somewhere on the right side...

Tweet media one

182

1K

12K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

8 months

Phones are an unusual example of societal equality. Incredibly rich people have cars, houses, planes, vacations, jewelry, clothing, furniture, food, wine, stadium seats, and services that other people couldn't dream of having. But they have the same smartphone everyone else has.

359

731

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

What’s something you’ve changed your mind about?

2K

384

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

There are people alive today who were around when we still thought the Milky Way was the entire universe

@Qupeplex

George Ioannidis

2 years

Cute sections from the astronomy section of Popular science monthly in 1902 talking about the Andromeda Nebula and the Spiral Nebula of Canes Venatici because it hadn't clicked yet they were different galaxies. #Space #Astronomy

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

25

176

1K

238

749

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

A tiny section of our galactic center. 10 million stars. Where is everybody?

Tweet media one

432

707

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

The thing I understand least is how there are incredibly thorough Wikipedia pages for literally everything.

235

594

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

A tribe of 100 people gained 100 years of life experience every year. A city of 10,000 gained the same in 3 days. Today, our species lives 15,000 years every minute and almost a million years every hour. Tiny improvements in how we communicate can pay massive wisdom dividends.

395

1K

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

My body hates watching this [ @trevorjacob93 ]

472

605

11K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

So even though the left hasn't moved that far left (as is shown by voting results), the left is in a sense being held hostage by their extreme wing, making a lot of people who enthusiastically voted for Obama feel politically homeless today.

1K

510

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Have you experienced deja vu?

Yes, often

192082

Yes, occasionally

265962

Never

30730

2K

760

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Using a modern 80-year lifetime as a unit, only 150 lifetimes ago, the Americas were untouched by people. The first human set foot in Europe only 500 lifetimes ago. 1,200 lifetimes ago we only lived in Africa. Humans are so new. [image: ]

Tweet media one

297

1K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

finally

Tweet media one

252

332

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

The path of a maturing thinker. In order to get to Grown-Up Mountain and start real learning, you have to brave the cold winds of Insecure Canyon. If you're not willing to say "I don't know" for a while, you might spend your whole life on Child’s Hill.

Tweet media one

92

3K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Much scarier than the small number of evil people is the large number who will fall in line with whatever's fashionable. When kindness is in fashion, they're kind. When a form of bigotry becomes cool, they jump on board. When it's popular to condone violence, they're all for it.

215

2K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

You’re not a progressive or a conservative or a moderate or radical or other political noun. You’re also not progressive or conservative or any other political adjective. Those are words for ideas, not people. Your mind is way too rad to be locked in a noun or adjective prison.

164

1K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

It took 300,000 years to get to 1 billion but only 218 years to go from 1 to 8.

Tweet media one

663

2K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

I took the weekend off Twitter and suddenly remembered that the sky is blue and the grass is soft and the flowers smell nice. Today, I'm just sitting here refreshing this page.

Tweet media one

307

444

9K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

It takes a googol years for a supermassive black hole to decay. How long is that? If you had an hourglass w/ a grain of sand for every particle in the universe, and 1 grain fell every 10 billion years, when it ran out you’d be < 1% thru the black hole’s life. h/t @Kurz_Gesagt

583

779

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

If we took all the gold that has ever been mined and melted it into a big cube, it would be this big.

Tweet media one

138

949

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

Thoughts from a surgeon friend. Sharing with his permission.

Tweet media one

86

2K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

@elonmusk I thought we agreed you were not going to talk about this publicly

107

161

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

It’s funny that after the Big Bang, there were all these hydrogen atoms everywhere and 13.8 billion years later some of them have turned into majestic nebulas and others have turned into Cheez-Its.

211

696

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

I read like 75 books in English classes throughout my childhood and I disliked almost all of them. Not because they were bad books but because English class ruins books. School sucks so much more than it has to.

439

395

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Our brains come preset to look at life up close. Don't forget to zoom out.

Tweet media one

76

2K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

In 2009, the Institute for Highway Safety staged a head on crash between a 2009 Chevy Malibu and a 1959 Bel Air. The same crash that would have instantly killed someone in 1959 causes a few light injuries today.

170

1K

10K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

3 years

When parents raise a child, they install elements of their psyche in them. When one of those elements is damaged, the damage is usually passed on. So self-improvement isn't selfish—it's repairing the "family psyche," which improves the lives of all the generations downstream.

114

1K

9K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

4 years

Ridiculously cool close-ups of the surface of the sun just released by @NSF . Each of those cells is the size of Texas. (h/t @kottke )

Tweet media one

147

1K

9K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Seems relevant these days

Tweet media one

83

2K

9K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

Whenever I get to know someone who seems perfect, I end up disappointed. Whenever I get to know someone who I think is the worst of the worst, I'm pleasantly surprised. Angels and demons aren't real.

Tweet media one

286

1K

9K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

1 year

I appreciate you all having read my posts during this final era when people still read stuff by human writers

286

373

9K

@waitbutwhy

Tim Urban

2 years

Hot tip: if you're pregnant, stick with the ultrasound. PASS ON THE MRI. [via Dan Martin on Quora]

Tweet media one

Tweet media two

Tweet media three

Tweet media four

290

733

9K