Is failure valuable?
Hank says from 2010 on that failure feels worse than it is and that fearing it leaves no chance of success; in 2017 he calls doing, failing and learning the only way to get good, and in 2025 says even failing builds new tools. John admires people who keep doing what they love while being bad at it (2012), and in 2018 sees his own supposed failure at making friends as a success he simply hadn't reached yet.
Axis: failure is valuable / necessary ... failure is simply bad, to be avoided
Positions by date: 11 records in 11 videos. The position was refined (2014, 2016), never reversed, in these records.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-11-20 | first on record | John draws from Florence Foster Jenkins that aptitude is not destiny: it sucks to be bad at something you love, but he admires people who do it anyway. | Great at Being Terrible: The Florence Foster Jenkins Story 00:02:44 |
| 2014-10-14 | refine | John says being wrong is a complicated pleasure: after defensiveness and embarrassment, it is exciting that others can still change how he sees the world. | A Minor Crisis 00:00:26 |
| 2016-09-20 | refine | John says what changed is that he got okay with not knowing: his once unshakable beliefs about books and writing are now shaken, which is uncomfortable but productive. | Failing to Follow Up The Fault in Our Stars 00:03:03 |
| 2018-08-07 | restate | John says he didn't want to go to the party because he had tried and thought he had failed at making friends; in fact he just hadn't succeeded yet. | How I Made Friends 00:03:34 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-10-15 | first on record | Hank says everyone fears failure, but knowing others made far bigger failures keeps him trying new projects despite probably failing; viewers' failures are insignificant by comparison. | TOP 7 FAILS OF HISTORY 00:00:00 |
| 2011-09-14 (said on 2011-09-15, implied) | restate | Hank says failure feels much worse than it is; with many failures behind him he minds less, and fearing failure so much you never try leaves no chance of success. | How to Make Ideas Real: Readit1st.com 00:03:00 |
| 2016-09-16 | restate | Hank says everyone will fail and make things that don't work, and asks whether we can drop the shame and make it a failure you can be proud of. | Let's Talk about Failure 00:03:16 |
| 2017-06-09 | restate | Hank says there is no way to get good at stuff except to do it, fail and learn. | Some Unhealthy Productivity Tips (and some Healthy ones) 00:02:52 |
| 2019-02-08 | restate | Hank links the stories: the producer's frustration told him something didn't seem right, less simple than a mic setting; it didn't make him a bad person, it was complicated, and there are other jackets. | Screwing Up: Two Stories From When I Worked at a TV Station 00:03:14 |
| 2024-02-02 | restate | Hank finds spray paint suits him because he can iterate fast: accidents happen, but when you're already onto the next thing an accident feels more like inspiration than failure. | The Weirdest Thing I Did in LA 00:01:27 |
| 2025-06-06 | restate | Hank advises that ideas cannot help anyone in your head: stop waiting and get them out, and even in failing you will build new tools. | The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech 00:17:27 |
Background
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-04-20 | background | Hank tells insecure viewers that he will like them more if they fail, and orders them to start failing now. (playful) | Thoughts on Growing up 00:01:46 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).