Tim Urban Quotes

#1. Depending on where The Great Filter occurs, we're left with three possible realities: We're rare, we're first, or we're fucked.

Tim Urban

#2. Humility is by definition a starting point - and it sends you off on a journey from there. The arrogance of certainty is both a starting point and an ending point - no journeys needed.

Tim Urban

#3. Gen-Ys are delusional; Most people are not special - otherwise "special" wouldn't mean anything. Even right now, most of Gen-Ys reading this are thinking, "Good point. But I actually am one of the few special ones" - and this is the problem.

Tim Urban

#4. The best friend of a blind Us is a nemesis Us - Them. Nothing unites Us like a collectively hated anti-Us, and the blind tribe is usually defined almost as much by hating the dogma of Them as it is by abiding by the dogma of Us. Whatever

Tim Urban

#5. Atheism isn't a growth model any more than "I don't like rollerblading" is a workout strategy.

Tim Urban

#6. Over time, big industries tend to get flabby and uncreative and risk-averse - and if the right outsider company has the means and creativity to come at the industry with a fresh perspective and rethink the whole thing, there's often a huge opportunity there.

Tim Urban

#7. Be humbler about what [you] know, more confident about what's possible, and less afraid of things that don't matter.

Tim Urban

#8. Insecurity can be solved the hard way or the easy way - and by giving people the easy option, dogmatic tribes remove the pressure to do the hard work of evolving into a more independent person with a more internally-defined identity.

Tim Urban

#9. A Facebook status is annoying if it primarily serves the author and does nothing positive for anyone reading it.

Tim Urban