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A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

novel · in 47 videos (2018–2025)

Hank's second novel, the sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, which he confirmed in 2018 and finished a draft of in 2019. It came out July 7, 2020, imagines what the social internet might become, and was in paperback by 2021.

By: Hank Green · Within: Altus, Peter Petrawicki, Robin (character, “A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor”), William Casey

Videos by year: 2018: 2 · 2019: 9 · 2020: 25 · 2021: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2025: 1

Also known as: Hank's sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Threads

Also named in the threads: Hank writes An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, his first novel (2014) · Partners In Health maternal health project in Liberia funded by DFTBA profit (2019) · John asks viewers to get Sarah's book You Are an Artist (2019) · You Are an Artist: Sarah Urist Green's book (2019) · Hank: superior fish beings will emerge in 2012 (1990)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (26) · You Are an Artist (3) · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast) (4) · perspective-taking (3) · The New York Times (4) · Amazon (3) · COVID-19 pandemic (4) · Twitter (7) · TikTok (4) · hankschannel (3)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2018

2019

  • 2019-04-23 · untitled — ask: John asks viewers to suggest in the comments a title for the Partners In Health Sierra Leone project, or for Hank's sequel. — 00:02:55
  • 2019-10-29 · The Truth about None Pizza with Left Beef — Hank tells John he has finished a draft of his book, the biggest news of his year. — 00:02:55
  • 2019-10-31 · Book News! — Hank: As he briefly mentioned last video, Hank has finished a draft: some 140,000 words with a beginning, middle and end, some of which will almost certainly be in the final book. — 00:00:00
    • Hank has started revising and really enjoys the story; it is a mess, but he thinks it will be good. — 00:00:29
    • Asked when the book is out, Hank says he doesn't know: much sooner now the draft is done, but much remains, including many people reading it first. (unsure) — 00:00:58
    • Hank says internet discourse did change his perspective: the first book was about the internet as it is, the sequel imagines the social internet far in the future, though the book isn't set far ahead. — 00:02:31
    • The hardest part: several previous characters are now point-of-view characters writing the book themselves, and holding four or five voices in his head is hard; he has had to learn a lot. — 00:03:00
    • Hank hopes the book will be on shelves within the next 12 months. (hedged) — 00:03:30
  • 2019-11-01 · On Looking Up to Your Little Brother — John says Hank has just finished a sequel to his first novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. — 00:02:39
  • 2019-11-29 · My Most Controversial Opinion — announcement: Hank announces his new book, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, out July 7, 2020, with pre-order links and a synopsis in the description; he'll talk about it more soon. — 00:03:07
  • 2019-12-20 · Reading the First Chapter of A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor — announcement: Hank's book A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor now has a cover, designed by Kaitlin Kall; followers on social media may have seen it. — 00:00:02
    • Chapter three, where questions start getting answered, will have to wait for the book's release on July 7, 2020. — 00:03:27
  • …and 18 statements more in 2019 — all statements of 2019

2020

  • 2020-01-07 · Endings · Beginnings — announcement: John will tour with both Hank and Sarah, hoping to help their books have good beginnings. — 00:02:35
  • 2020-01-10 · The Thing I would Like to End — Hank likes the book a lot: it is much more ambitious than his first and says interesting and important things we need to be thinking about now. — 00:03:14
  • 2020-02-28 · I'M FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE — ask: Hank says signed copies are available for pre-order now and asks viewers to pre-order one; anyone with an unsigned pre-order can cancel it. — 00:02:10
  • 2020-03-10 · A Strong but Fleeting Flavor: A Reunion Video — recommendation: John has just finished A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor and says it is so great that, like the last book, it seems impossible it was written by his brother, who is kind of a doofus. — 00:02:10
  • 2020-05-08 · The years start coming and they don't stop coming! — Hank has finished his last edits to his book and sent them in; it is officially 60 days, two months, from publication. — 00:03:04
  • 2020-06-12 · Fed to the Rules — announcement: Hank tells John it is 25 days until July 7, when the Carl saga concludes and A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is released. — 00:02:59
  • 2020-06-30 · i like it — John reread Hank's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor over the weekend and thinks it is the rare sequel that improves upon the original. — 00:00:41
  • 2020-07-03 · My World's on Fire — announcement: Hank: Tickets bought for the July 6th event Hank and John are doing together may have been refunded and need buying again; Hank is sorry. — 00:02:38
  • 2020-07-07 · You're a Rock Star — announcement: John: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is available now wherever books are sold, and they launch it tonight at 7pm at youtube.com/vlogbrothers. — 00:03:13
  • 2020-07-10 · What a Concept!! — Hank says, beyond the book, the two are the same: the first character modifies his toolkit without identifying his core problem, which is that it is suddenly his job to have interesting takes. — 00:01:41
  • 2020-07-14 · The ice we skate is getting pretty thin. — John: With the book out a week, John shares his favorite line from Hank's novel: you will struggle with not feeling productive until you accept your own joy can be something you produce. — 00:01:56 · also in: how we spend our days, I Love Hank. (Also I'm back.)
  • 2020-12-29 · Looking Back at My 2020 Goals — John: Sarah's book You Are an Artist and Hank's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor both came out, but the touring John planned for them did not happen. — 00:01:56
  • …and 69 statements more in 2020 — all statements of 2020

2021

  • 2021-01-05 · SUPERIOR FISH BEINGS — John: Avoiding spoilers, John says adult Hank has arguably written the two greatest superior fish being novels of the century, with few actual fish beings. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:58
  • 2021-03-09 · Hank Rebranded Without Any of Us Noticing — John says Hank's novels brilliantly explore how online you can never fully leave your past behind: everything you said is still being said, heard in the listener's present. — 00:02:55
  • 2021-07-16 · Should You Abandon Social Media? — announcement: Hank says his two novels telling one story, the first about the internet now and the second about what it might become, are both available in paperback as of this week (week of 12 July 2021), wherever books are sold. — 00:03:13
  • 2021-10-05 · Why the Heck am I on TikTok??? — Hank joined TikTok shortly before his second novel came out and used it to promote the book, unashamed of using his social media skill for work he thinks many people should read. — 00:00:00
  • …and 1 statement more in 2021 — all statements of 2021

2022

  • 2022-10-14 · The Surprise Revelation of NerdfArters — Hank runs through early prompts: DFTBA, Pizza John Yourself, Breezy Fall Day (a reference to his second novel), Just the Word Pelican, Surprise Fiddle Concert, Nerdfighteria and Pizzamas. — 00:00:58
  • 2022-12-09 · Things are Changing Very Fast — Hank says he wrote two books about how, when new things arrive (a pandemic, social change, a powerful technology, an alien), people retreat to the camps where they feel safest, the more so the more confused they are. — 00:00:00
  • 2022-12-20 · The Best Books Get Better — John says he has come to see Hank's two-book series as books that are getting better over time, without comparing Hank to Fitzgerald or Butler. — 00:02:26
    • John says he first loved them as fun adventure stories about internet culture and fame, articulating celebrity and the fracturing of attention as no book had before. — 00:02:26
    • John says the books also explore how wealthy individuals form symbiotic ties with angry, disenfranchised groups to build divisive affinity networks, and how sudden technological shifts are destructive yet thrilling. — 00:02:55
    • John says that, at least so far, as Hank's books have aged they feel more contemporary, which is astonishing. (hedged) — 00:02:55
  • 2022-12-23 · You Cannot Trust Yourself (Hank's End of the Year Worries) — Hank says he wrote his first book to show more clearly what the internet is actually like, and his second is more about what he thinks it is going to be like. — 00:00:00
    • Hank finds it legitimately weird to watch parallels to his second book come true. — 00:00:00

2024

  • 2024-04-19 · I Closed My Boob in a Door — Hank: For a character with visible facial trauma in his second book, Hank talked to Phyllida Swift, whose appearance changed after a car accident and who is CEO of Face Equality International. — 00:04:09

2025

  • 2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John calls A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor the wonderful and thrilling sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. — 00:00:29