{"id":83410,"date":"2018-04-27T15:21:18","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T20:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=83410"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:10:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:10:26","slug":"tim-wu-interview-convenience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #400: The Tyranny of Convenience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Modern life has given us lots of conveniences. With a tap of your smartphone screen, and without leaving the house, you can order a car to your door or a hot dinner, or even replenish your toilet paper supply. Right now, you\u2019re listening to this podcast how and when you want to. Yes, life is good in the 21st century.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But what if there\u2019s such a thing as too much convenience? What if it&#8217;s actually enslaving us in some strange way?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That\u2019s what my guest <span class=\"s2\">today<\/span> argues. His name is Tim Wu, he\u2019s a professor of law at Columbia Law School and the author of several books, including&nbsp;<i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01AEPSWB4\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B01AEPSWB4&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\">The Attention Merchants<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/i><span class=\"s2\">Today<\/span> on the show, Tim and I discuss the tyranny of convenience. We begin with a brief history of convenience, discussing how it became a driving force in the economy in the late 19th century and how Tim believes we\u2019re at the beginning of a second convenience revolution. We then discuss how convenience can make us feel more free and unique, but actually limits our freedom and makes us like everyone else. Tim then shares ideas on how to inject some healthy inconvenience in your life for more happiness, freedom, and fulfillment.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Modern life has given us lots of conveniences. With a tap of your smartphone screen, and without leaving the house, you can order a car to your door or a hot dinner, or even replenish your toilet paper supply. Right now, you\u2019re listening to this podcast how and when you want to. Yes, life is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/400-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/400-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/400-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/400-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/400-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tim Wu Interview \u2014\u00a0The Tyranny of Convenience | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Modern life has given us lots of conveniences. With a tap of your smartphone screen, and without leaving the house, you can order a car to your door or a hot dinner. But what if there\u2019s such a thing as too much convenience? What if it&#039;s actually enslaving us in some strange way?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #400: The Tyranny of Convenience | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Modern life has given us lots of conveniences. With a tap of your smartphone screen, and without leaving the house, you can order a car to your door or a hot dinner. But what if there\u2019s such a thing as too much convenience? What if it&#039;s actually enslaving us in some strange way?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-27T20:21:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-05T14:10:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/400.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #400: The Tyranny of Convenience\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-27T20:21:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-05T14:10:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":218,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/400.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Podcast\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/\",\"name\":\"Tim Wu Interview \u2014\u00a0The Tyranny of Convenience | The Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/self-improvement\\\/tim-wu-interview-convenience\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/400.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-27T20:21:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-05T14:10:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"Modern life has given us lots of conveniences. 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