From da Vinci to Darwin, how great minds put things off, but changed the world anyway. We’ll talk to two procrastinators: Andrew Santella, the writer of a new book about procrastination, and Tim Urban, whose TED talk on procrastination was one of the most viewed of 2016.
Guests:
Andrew Santella, Brooklyn-based writer whose book, “Soon: An Overdue History Of Procrastination, From Leonardo And Darwin To You And Me,” comes out Tuesday. (@andrew_santella)
Tim Urban, blogger who gave a TED talk called “Inside The Mind Of A Master Procrastinator.” (@waitbutwhy)
From The Reading List:
Excerpt of “SOON”:
From SOON by Andrew Santella Copyright © 2018 by Andrew Santella. Reprinted by permission of Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
Tim Urban’s TED talk:
Here’s a little puzzle. Why did Charles Darwin wait a couple decades between first observations on evolution, and publishing his revolutionary book “On the Origin of Species”? He dabbled with a variety of other ideas and experiments, certainly, but he also spent a lot of time obsessing over barnacles. He even later admitted “I doubt whether the work was worth the consumption of so much time.” A new book puts Darwin among a group of august procrastinators, and asks a surprising question: Can procrastination can lead to startling innovation?
This hour, On Point: Delay, brilliance, and procrastination.
–Meghna Chakrabarti
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