I've been reading Tim Urban's writing for a while. One of the most valuable things in his writing isn't originality, but delivery.
He might not be coming up with original ideas (he regularly references the research he consulted to form his writing) but he _does_ do a great job of breaking down complex ideas into a form that's easily digestible.
The first several chapters of this series (worth a read, even if it's the only thing you read this year) are devoted entirely to building the vocabulary needed to discuss these concepts. He works hard to help build a mental model for the reader, which makes his writing significantly more accessible to the average human.
I think that breaking down the concepts is also helpful for Tim, as well as anyone who's trying to wrestle with complex ideas, in addition to the audience. Making sure your concepts are well-defined and clear is key to building them into something greater. So many flawed ideas are flawed because they're built off of a shaky foundation. Unfortunately analyzing those foundational ideas critically is difficult. I've found that writing essays helps force you into doing the hard work, but it's very time consuming.
It seems to me like most of the topics Tim covers are not very complex at all. His most famous articles are on procrastination, which pretty much everyone already understands. The main value was in adding characters that people could use to visualize the problem. Likewise, all the ideas presented in this series are either obvious (eg. US politics are very polarized these days) or dubious (eg. The rational mind is politically centrist).
He might not be coming up with original ideas (he regularly references the research he consulted to form his writing) but he _does_ do a great job of breaking down complex ideas into a form that's easily digestible.
The first several chapters of this series (worth a read, even if it's the only thing you read this year) are devoted entirely to building the vocabulary needed to discuss these concepts. He works hard to help build a mental model for the reader, which makes his writing significantly more accessible to the average human.