What is the greatest or most distinctive human quality?
In 2013 John named collaboration as the most important human trait and has since stressed sharing knowledge together; Hank named curiosity, and in 2025 still ranked it among the top two. Hank has also pointed to stories, adaptability, and laughing and crying.
Axis: collaboration ... curiosity
Concept: curiosity
Positions by date: 22 records in 21 videos. shift and revise mean the position moved; tension — disagreement with the other speaker.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-10-22 | first on record | John argues the urge to collaborate, not curiosity, is the most important human trait: many animals are curious, only humans cooperate to make communities, telescopes and movies. | Question Tuesday: The Fault in Our Stars Movie Edition 00:03:24 |
| 2013-10-22 | tension | John tells Hank he disagrees with his curiosity claim, saying cooperation, while allowing he might be wrong. → refers to Curiosity is the Greatest Human Quality | Question Tuesday: The Fault in Our Stars Movie Edition 00:03:24 |
| 2014-05-20 | restate | John says his favourite thing about humans is that we can work together to improve each other's chances of healthy, productive lives. | Deserving 00:02:55 |
| 2015-06-09 | restate | John rejects stories, literacy and biology as what makes us human and finds empathy, collaboration and hope not unique to humans; he believes we confer personhood on each other through empathy, compassion and trust. | What Does It Mean to Be Human? 00:02:32 |
| 2018-11-02 | refine | John loves that humans figure things out, share, verify and pass the information on: that is the human story, or the best of it. | Let Us Now Praise the Panda Person 00:01:40 |
| 2020-03-03 | refine | John tells the viewer they are the only part of the known universe that knows it is in a universe. | Consciously Experiencing Human Dignity 00:02:55 |
| 2020-03-17 | restate | John says togetherness is the superpower of our species: humans are smart as animals go, but collective knowledge is what made us so successful. | together. 00:00:00 |
| 2022-07-19 | refine | We don't need to know why zinc exists for Hot Wheels to be fun or to survive, but we still want to know; John thinks this urge to know is kind of the human superpower. | Why Do Things Exist? 00:00:35 |
| 2022-11-29 | restate | John says humans differ from other life because writing, video and other communication technologies let them share knowledge across space and time. | The Weight of Life 00:01:56 |
| 2024-10-03 | restate | John says none of this is unique to humans, but we are especially good at making art and figuring things out together, and we should celebrate that rather than conclude we just suck. | Broadly in Favor of Humans 00:03:38 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-08-03 | first on record | Hank argues love is the reason individuals and our civilization exist, and the only reason humans can do marvelous, magnificent things. | I Love My Brother 00:01:56 |
| 2011-12-02 | restate | Calling them 'curse' words admits they are magic; Hank says words are magic, some stronger than others, and language is the tool that created humanity. | F#*%? An Explanation of Curse Words 00:02:20 |
| 2013-10-25 | refine | Hank says humans being designed to want to understand may be their most wonderful quality, but grants it may instead be collaboration (John's view) or empathy (commenters). → refers to Question Tuesday: The Fault in Our Stars Movie Edition | When Was it a Million Seconds Ago? 00:02:30 |
| 2014-02-07 | restate | Hank rejects the view that human intelligence is just one trait among others: what makes people special is the scale on which our brains have allowed us to create. | Kill All The Humans 00:01:27 |
| 2015-03-27 | restate | Hank decides that what sets humans apart from other animals is not thumbs, tool use or self-awareness but stories. | Announcing NerdCon: Stories 00:01:23 |
| 2017-06-09 | refine | Hank thinks curiosity is one of the top two or three human characteristics, something he likes about himself; he wants to understand stuff and people. | Some Unhealthy Productivity Tips (and some Healthy ones) 00:03:09 |
| 2018-01-12 | refine | Hank sees in sampling the thing that makes humans unique and so powerful: there are no new things; he stole every word he is saying from whoever made it up, whose name we don't remember. | 5 Songs You've Never Heard That You've Heard 1000 Times 00:03:19 |
| 2019-11-15 | restate | Hank says being told a story is the oldest thing there is and, with maybe music, he thinks it is what made us human. | Are audiobooks worse? 00:00:30 |
| 2020-10-12 | shift | Hank's wisdom: these things are not fixed; they can and should change, which should make you feel human, not less worthwhile, since adaptability is the most human trait. | What Matters 00:03:17 |
| 2021-12-24 | restate | Hank does not know the point of being human but says curiosity is close to its root: beyond wanting a better world, we want to know and to learn. | 29 Days of Astronomical Terror 00:03:24 |
| 2023-10-13 | refine | Hank says humans are unique in laughing and crying: other animals do neither, and humans have specific physiological reactions for both. | Cancer Made me Do It. 00:04:08 |
| 2025-11-21 | restate | Hank repeats that he thinks curiosity is one of the top two human emotions. | I Wasn't Always Like This!! 00:00:00 |