Wait But Why


Wait But Why is a website founded by Tim Urban and Andrew Finn and written and illustrated by Urban. The site covers a range of subjects as a long-form blog. Typical posts involve long-form discussions of various topics, including artificial intelligence, outer space, and procrastination, using a combination of prose and rough illustrations.

History

Early in the site's history, it focused on social media and funny quips about technology such as "7 Ways to Be Insufferable on Facebook" and "11 Awkward Things About Email", but over time Urban focused on deeper, more data-driven topics. On May 21, 2014, Urban posted "The Fermi Paradox," a post that became extremely popular.
The site's original slogan was "New post every Monday and Thursday". As post lengths increased and the content became more detailed only weekly updates were possible, and the slogan became "New post every Tuesday" at first, "New post every Tuesday" later, and "New post every sometimes" since 2015.
With the new focus on science and technology, Wait But Why gained the attention of Elon Musk, which led to the series of posts on Musk. In June 2015, Elon Musk asked Urban if he would be willing to write about his companies and their surrounding industries, leading to a five-part series of Wait But Why posts on Musk and his companies. Urban interviewed Musk multiple times, and the two discussed sustainable transport, solar energy, and the future of space exploration. On April 20, 2017, Urban posted the first deep look at Musk's transhumanist brain-machine interface company, Neuralink, after Musk had asked Urban to write an explanatory article about a month and a half before.
Content has been syndicated on The Huffington Post, Lifehacker, as well as being referenced on other sites.
In February 2016, Urban gave a TED talk on procrastination. The talk was the fastest TED talk to reach 10 million views, and is the second most viewed TED main stage talk.