Chapter 22: Tim Urban on shivering in shorts and shifting from sheep to chef

3 Books is a completely insane and totally epic 15-year-long quest to uncover the 1000 most formative books in the world. Each chapter is hosted live and in-person at the guest's preferred location by Neil Pasricha, New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. Each chapter of 3 Books uncovers and discusses the three most formative books from one of the world's most inspiring people. Sample guests include: Judy Blume, David Sedaris, Chris Anderson of TED, and the world's greatest Uber driver. Each of the 333 chapters is dropped on the exact minute of every new moon and full moon until September 1, 2031. 3 Books is an Apple "Best Of" award-winning show as well as the world's only podcast by and for book lovers, writers, makers, sellers... and librarians. For more info check out: www.3books.co Tim Urban (@waitbutwhy) is the author of the blog Wait But Why and has become one of the Internet’s most popular writers with over 1.5 million readers per month. According to Fast Company, Tim has “captured a level of reader engagement that even the new-media giants would be envious of.” Tim’s series of posts after interviewing Elon Musk has been called by Vox “the meatiest, most fascinating, most satisfying posts I’ve read in ages.” Tim’s TED Talk, Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator, has received more than 30 million views. Chapter Description: Pop quiz! Who’s the first person who comes to mind when you think of the word philosopher? Aristotle, Plato, Socrates … Karl Marx? If you asked me today, the first person that comes to my mind is Tim Urban. Because a philosopher is someone engaged with the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Wrestling with the big questions! And sure, lots of folks are doing that. But I can’t think of anyone doing it better right now than Tim Urban. Tim Urban is co-founder and writer of the popular blog Wait Buy Why, which has over 1.5 million readers per month and scores of big-name fans including Elon Musk. Why? Because Tim has a beautifully simplistic way of distilling big, complex topics like artificial intelligence, picking a life partner, and, say, The Fermi Paradox, into simple language. He’s an incredible teacher, an incredible philosopher. His TED Talk on procrastination is a great example of this, which has over 30 million views. Tim’s intellectual curiosity is huge. Despite being a Harvard grad, Tim’s going against the grain of typical Harvard grads and spending his days writing long blog posts using simple words to explain big things. And we’re lucky enough to get a glimpse into how Tim’s brain works in Chapter 22. We discuss breaking convention, retaining curiosity, Stitches vs Band-aids, why you should let your children wear shorts in the winter, the difference between cooks and chefs, and much, much more.... Join us over avocado toast in the corner of Ludlow Coffee Supply in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: Why should you let your kids wear shorts in the winter? Why is it important to separate art from the artist? How can conservatism and progressivism work together? How can we learn to break free from normalcy and follow our own paths? How can we tell if old wisdom is still useful or if it no longer applies? What’s the difference between reasoning with first principle versus reasoning by analogy? How can we learn to appreciate children’s curiosity and tendency to ask ‘why’? If someone is remorseful of something, does that mean they deserve forgiveness? How can we make things people love, instead of things people already have? Leave us a voicemail! Your message may be included in a future episode: 1-833-READ-A-LOT. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.3books.co/chapters/22 Sign up to receive podcast updates here: https://www.3books.co/email-list/