Brief history of humans on Earth | Tim Urban and Lex Fridman

Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

GUEST BIO:
Tim Urban is the author of the blog Wait But Why and a new book What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[Djemoltellitlikeitis]

It still baffles me that we still think we are the only generation of humans with great knowledge of the world

[kenfalloon]

I think it's modernocentric to assert that hunter gatherer societies knew nothing about their lives and world. Their knowledge of everything in their habitat would have been as detailed as ours because cultural evolution would have honed that knowledge over many millennia.

[lucaslodi]

the greeks and the romans had hot water, as we know... we can speculate that egyptians and chinese got it too... but I get his point, he got caught in the moment

[davidmartin]

“Sapiens”, a Brief History of Mankind” by Yuval Noah Harari is a great book about civilization

[nenZchrme]

16 minutes is the briefest brief we'll ever get from Lex

[DINYERDAZE]

1767 the shower was invented by William feetham in London...obviously...but I would argue and say the Romans probably had bucket with holes in first.and yes the romans had hot water and Central heating...not to mention stoneage man living near hot springs and geezers.

[Kombo-Chapfika]

A reminder that pretending to know more than you actually do is a career path.

[Lebowski]

To say that for the majority of human history nothing happens is an insult to the hunter gatherers today.

[Pete_xp]

This is prime r/im14andthisisdeep content

[ideago]

I love Tim Urban but I think that chart is super misleading. Half or more of the people who have ever lived were born in the past 2000 years so the final 8 pages of his book should take up half the size. The final page itself should be maybe 10% of the entire book? And the entire bottom row should be MOST of it. Most humans have experienced civilization and technological change, because it's built into who we are.

Tim made a powerful point in the second half with his story about travel. We form our attitudes about the world during our formative years, and that person stays inside us as we progress through life even if and as our circumstances change.

@Lex you flashed an Appalachian book at the start, but not Tim's book

[kladdha_]

Lol, @ 0:09 the screenshot of the book is incorrect I presume?

[ecospider]

My spouse and I live in a 2600sqft house. It’s amazing how easy it is to feel that it’s just supposed to be that way. Or to look at someone who has a 6000sqft house and say, why don’t I have that.

What we should be saying is. Wow this is great. I grew up in a 1400sqft house with 1 shower. I’m living the high life.

[RickyAceRozay]

A lot of people still don’t have hot showers

[julieshaffer]

As a child I was very poor and at times very hungry. Almost on a weekly basis I lay my head down on my awesome pillow and lay on my comfy full size bed and I say “Thank You”. It’s great to sleep better than most kings in the history of kings.

[thekitchen]

They had hot baths 2000 years ago. In Rome people bathed a lot and also wore perfume. Not sure about showers.

[LexClips]

Guest bio: Tim Urban is the author of the blog Wait But Why and a new book What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies.

[denniscleary]

Absolutely love this channel and it’s so nice to see people speak the way I think 👍

[CashCowz]

Humans are the most adaptable creatures on 🌎

[patrickkelly]

Bravo! This was an outstanding interview with one of my favorite bloggers and authors.

[tminusmat]

Dude needs to read Dr. Graeber who describes a much different world of our ancestors.