Key Moments
Nick Thompson Interview | The Tim Ferriss Show (Podcast)
Tim FerrissKey Moments
Nick Thompson on journalism, startups, and navigating career and life pivots.
Key Insights
Journalism offers a potentially higher ceiling for career growth than music, influencing Nick's pivot.
Unexpected life events, like a kidnapping in Morocco, can become valuable material for a journalism career.
Wired's pitch process, though rigorous, allowed for editorially driven decisions over pure democracy.
Optioning stories for film can be a dream, but requires a strong agent and careful negotiation of deal points.
The New Yorker's success with daily web content stemmed from leveraging existing staff writers for smart analysis.
Supporting in-depth journalism often requires diversified revenue streams beyond advertising, like subscriptions or film options.
Running serves as a crucial physical and mental outlet, especially after overcoming a thyroid cancer diagnosis.
Navigating career uncertainty and rejection is a significant challenge, but perseverance can lead to unexpected opportunities.
Parenting profoundly impacts one's perspective on responsibility and the legacy one leaves behind.
Mindfulness and Alexander Technique offer valuable tools for mental clarity and physical well-being, complementing running.
FROM SUBWAY BUSKING TO EDITORIAL LEADERSHIP
Nick Thompson initially balanced his early journalism career with fingerstyle guitar performances on New York subway platforms, generating a surprising income. He developed strategic busking techniques, optimizing for specific platforms and demographics. This dual pursuit eventually led him to choose writing and editing over music, recognizing a higher potential ceiling in journalism for someone with his skills, despite music being a passion. This early decision-making process set a precedent for him to thoughtfully consider career paths and their long-term prospects.
THE UNEXPECTED PATH INTO JOURNALISM
Thompson's entry into journalism was far from conventional. After graduating from Stanford, a brief, abrupt firing from an associate producer role at '60 Minutes' was followed by a bizarre kidnapping incident in Morocco. Instead of derailing him, these experiences became the fodder for his first published pieces, including an essay for The Washington Post. This seemingly chaotic start unexpectedly provided him with crucial clips, leading to an editor role at The Washington Monthly and ultimately paving the way for his career in journalism.
CRAFTING COMPELLING STORIES AND PITCHES
At Wired, Thompson experienced a unique pitch grading system designed to leverage the 'wisdom of crowds.' While discarded, this process highlighted the importance of understanding the publication's mission. A compelling pitch, Thompson explains, needs to offer multiple ideas, demonstrate why the writer is uniquely suited for the story, and clearly align with the publication's goals—like Wired's focus on technology's impact. The 'Great Escape' story, though not a typical tech piece, was championed for its narrative power, illustrating that compelling human stories can transcend genre.
THE DYNAMIC WORLD OF STORY OPTIONING
Thompson highlights the potential of optioning stories for film and television, noting The Atavist's high success rate. He stresses the critical role of a knowledgeable agent who has experience selling magazine stories to Hollywood. Key deal points include securing upfront payments, ensuring quality people are attached to the project at each stage, and negotiating fair reversion of rights. A first-look deal, as The Atavist implemented, provides a structured approach with guaranteed income and priority for their content.
THE CHALLENGES AND REWARDS OF LONG-FORM JOURNALISM
Transitioning to The New Yorker's website, Thompson grappled with creating daily digital content that maintained the magazine's esteemed quality. The strategy evolved to rely on staff writers producing smart, timely analysis, finding that this approach garnered significant readership and aligned business incentives with journalistic integrity. He acknowledges the economic challenges of long-form journalism, where subscription revenue or other streams, like film options, are often necessary to subsidize the higher costs compared to short-form, ad-driven content.
EDITING MASTERY AND STRUCTURAL INSIGHTS
Thompson describes the meticulous process of editing high-caliber writers, emphasizing immediate feedback and clear guidance on structural issues. He advocates for reading prose aloud to appreciate its rhythm and studying master stylists like Catherine Boo. Mapping a story's structure, even on a whiteboard, is a key exercise for editors and writers to understand how information and themes are presented, revealing brilliant choices or potential flaws. This deep dive into story construction is vital for aspiring editors and writers.
NAVIGATING CAREER UNCERTAINTY AND PIVOTS
Thompson shares his own experiences with career uncertainty, including a period of significant job rejection after leaving The Washington Monthly, which led him to consider law school. The decision to ultimately accept a senior editor role at Wired, turning down law school just before matriculation, proved transformational. This illustrates that even when feeling adrift, staying open to opportunities and making difficult choices based on instinct and passion can lead to the right path.
THE IMPACT OF PERSONAL HEALTH AND FAMILY
Thompson candidly discusses overcoming thyroid cancer in his twenties, a period that profoundly impacted his perspective on health and mortality. His return to running marathons post-treatment was a powerful affirmation of recovery. Similarly, becoming a father has brought a deep sense of responsibility and redefined his priorities, focusing on nurturing his children's growth and being a role model, highlighting the transformative power of both personal health challenges and family life.
ROUTINE, MINDFULNESS, AND PHILOSOPHICAL GUIDANCE
His commitment to running to and from work underscores the importance of integrating physical activity and mental breaks into a demanding schedule. While not practicing formal meditation, he sees his running and Alexander Technique practice as substitutes, promoting mindfulness and physical alignment. He finds profound encouragement in George Kennan's philosophy that small, right actions can initiate positive chains of events, a principle that guides his approach to life's challenges and decisions.
Mentioned in This Episode
●Products
●Software & Apps
●Companies
●Organizations
●Books
●Concepts
●People Referenced
Common Questions
Thompson's entry into journalism was unconventional. After being fired from 60 Minutes at age 22, he went on a trip to Africa where he was briefly kidnapped. This experience became the subject of an essay he wrote for The Washington Post, providing him with his first journalistic clips, which then led to a job as editor of The Washington Monthly.
Topics
Mentioned in this video
A mobile messaging application, for which Wired launched a channel under Thompson's leadership.
A professional networking and job recruitment platform that offers a built-in ecosystem for finding and interacting with candidates.
The subject of an 11,000-word cover story Thompson co-wrote for Wired, investigating the two years that shook the company and the world.
An indoor cycling bike system offering live and on-demand studio classes. Tim Ferriss shares his positive experience with it.
A prominent talent and media agency.
A prestigious American magazine where Nicholas Thompson served as editor of its website from 2012 to 2017.
A magazine where Nicholas Thompson got his first job as an editor after his initial journalistic clips.
A leading talent and sports agency.
The publication that first published Nicholas Thompson's journalistic work, an essay about his kidnapping experience in Africa.
A think tank where Nicholas Thompson worked before joining Wired.
The parent company of Wired and The New Yorker.
A national magazine award-winning digital publication co-founded by Nicholas Thompson, known for long-form experimental stories and multimedia.
The law school Thompson was set to attend before accepting the job offer from Wired.
A news organization for which Nicholas Thompson is a contributor and regularly appears on 'CBS This Morning'.
A global talent and entertainment company.
A publication where Chris Anderson previously worked as a writer.
A writer and co-founder of The Atavist, who conducted the 'Vanish' experiment for Wired, going off-grid to be tracked by readers.
The former editor of Wired who implemented a strict pitch-grading process and encouraged experimentation.
A friend of Tim Ferriss who influenced him to try Peloton due to his positive fitness transformation.
Editor of The New Yorker, whose increasing interest in daily journalism led to Thompson's move to run the New Yorker website.
A New Yorker staff writer whose web piece about a terror attack exemplified the kind of smart analysis that attracted readership.
The editor-in-chief of Wired, a contributor for CBS News, and co-founder of The Atavist, who previously served as editor of New Yorker.com.
The author of 'Why Buddhism is True' and 'Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny', praised by Thompson as one of the smartest writers.
A Peloton instructor known for designing high-intensity training sessions.
A Peloton instructor mentioned as Kevin Rose's favorite.
A Cold War figure whose life, along with Paul Nitze's, was the subject of Nicholas Thompson's book and later a philosophical quote discussed by Thompson.
A segment producer from 60 Minutes under whom Thompson was supposed to work.
A Cold War figure whose life, along with George Kennan's, was the subject of Nicholas Thompson's book.
A senior editor at The New Yorker, whose regular posts contribute to the website's success.
The executive editor at Wired who championed 'The Great Escape' story despite its unconventional fit for the magazine.
A New Yorker staff writer who writes a reliable daily column for the website.
A highly successful author mentioned as someone who would command higher payment rates for his writing.
A renowned writer, whose work, particularly 'Draft No. 4' and 'Levels of the Game', is highly recommended for understanding story structure and editing.
A writer praised by Thompson for her exceptional style, recommended for aspiring writers to study by reading her work aloud.
The Deputy Editor of The New Yorker, to whom Thompson sent an emotional email that ultimately led to his hiring after a prior rejection.
A smart writer at The New Yorker and author of 'Strangers Drowning', whose work Thompson admires and recommends.
The writer of 'The Great Escape' for Wired, whose pitches included stories about an escape from Iran and Stalin's alleged half-man, half-ape army.
The founder of Facebook, subject of an 11,000-word story co-authored by Thompson and Ratliff, which had a deliberate chronological and thematic structure.
A web designer and co-founder of The Atavist, who developed the content management system that enabled its multimedia storytelling.
The crossword puzzle editor of The New York Times, who embedded a clue about Evan Ratliff's location during the 'Vanish' experiment.
A friend and colleague of Thompson who had intertwined careers and was instrumental in recommending Thompson for various roles, including at Wired.
A news program where Nicholas Thompson was briefly hired and then famously fired as an Associate Producer at age 22.
An Oscar-winning film based on the Wired feature story 'The Great Escape', which Nicholas Thompson had assigned and edited.
A morning news program on which Nicholas Thompson regularly appears.
A practice discussed in Robert Wright's book 'Why Buddhism is True', which Thompson views his running practice as a substitute for.
A magazine where Nicholas Thompson currently serves as editor-in-chief, known for covering technology and its impact on the world.
A resource recommended for aspiring writers to find agents and learn about film credits.
A technique Thompson learned for body positioning and posture, which he uses to prevent injuries and considers a form of 'century technique' akin to mindfulness.
A city in northern Morocco where Nicholas Thompson was kidnapped while traveling in his early twenties.
The city where Evan Ratliff was eventually found during the 'Vanish' experiment.
A national park in Maine, a reflective place for Thompson, where he made the difficult decision regarding law school versus journalism.
More from Tim Ferriss
View all 586 summaries
76 minHow to Quiet the Ruminative Mind and Avoid The Traps of Self-Help — Tim Ferriss
86 minNYT Bestselling Author on Writing 200+ Children's Books — Tish Rabe
134 minChampion of "Alone" on The Art of Survival — Jordan Jonas
105 minTim McGraw — Selling 100M+ Records and 30+ Years of Creative Longevity
Found this useful? Build your knowledge library
Get AI-powered summaries of any YouTube video, podcast, or article in seconds. Save them to your personal pods and access them anytime.
Try Summify free