What is work for, and how much should people work?
Hank said in 2017 that he works too hard; in 2019 he no longer felt he must create all the economic value he could, and in 2026 he called valuing life by output wrong. John puts passion and fulfillment above income, has tried to work less since 2019, and in 2024 an injury made him rethink his relationship with work.
Axis: work is meaning and obligation (do more) ... work is a means; limits and rest come first
Concept: occupational burnout
Positions by date: 56 records in 55 videos. shift and revise mean the position moved; tension — disagreement with the other speaker.
John
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-08-21 | first on record | John: maximizing income matters far less than maximizing passion and fulfillment, professionally and personally. | Is College Worth It? 00:03:00 |
| 2012-10-02 | refine | John: choosing what to do is not choosing one thing forever; you can do several things at once (an electrical engineer who volunteers on archaeological digs). | What To Do With Your Life 00:02:18 |
| 2014-09-30 | refine | John says his usual line that you don't do just one thing with your life is a cop-out: the honest answer is he doesn't know what to do with his own life. | Keeping it EVEN REALER 00:00:40 |
| 2015-07-14 | restate | John says he won't take a break: promoting the movie and vlogging fill him up instead of draining him, and stopping everything used to send him into a spiral. | On Exhaustion 00:02:04 |
| 2017-06-13 | restate | John says creative work requires spending time in ways markets and culture don't recognize as productive, like reading, pacing or staring out the window. | Cheyenne, Wyoming 00:02:04 |
| 2017-12-26 | restate | Leave in 2017 prioritizing career over sanity: that's dumb. | LEAVE IT IN 2017 00:02:20 |
| 2018-09-04 | restate | Productivity talk lacks joy: life is not about becoming the most efficient value-creation machine but also fulfillment and enjoyment, so unimportant things you love aren't unimportant. | The Eisenhower Matrix 00:02:30 |
| 2018-11-13 | restate | John says burnout is harder to fix than a haircut: overwhelmed, he becomes less productive, since being overwhelmed is time-consuming; burnout inspires exhausted fatalism, not productivity. | HAIRMERGENCY! 00:02:10 |
| 2019-05-14 | restate | John says no career can healthfully carry all of your identity, let alone one as weird and unpredictable as online video. | An Open Letter to Professional YouTubers 00:03:24 |
| 2019-11-26 | restate | John says his central goal for the next decade is to do fewer things the world constructs as work and more valuable things not imagined as work: family time, dishes, sleep, reading, volunteering. | old fashioned parts video 00:00:32 |
| 2020-01-07 | restate | John wants to stop working at night and on weekends: to keep the goal specific, measurable and achievable, no more than one night a week and never weekends except work travel. | Endings · Beginnings 00:01:36 |
| 2020-07-14 | restate | Solving the cube wasn't a Vlogbrothers video, a podcast episode or answering overdue emails, but John says it also wasn't time wasted. | The ice we skate is getting pretty thin. 00:02:55 |
| 2020-08-18 | restate | John has focused his life on being productive with a very narrow definition: YouTube videos count but woods walks with his kids don't, email but not Twitter, good artists' art but not his. | what's wrong with taking the back streets? 00:01:27 |
| 2021-09-21 | restate | John's mattering as a person is not contingent on his production, especially production the world recognizes; sometimes the most important work is merely thinking or being, above all being present for those he loves. | how we spend our days 00:02:55 |
| 2021-11-23 (said on 2021-10-28, implied) | restate | The most important part of John's life is interpersonal, relationships with friends and family, then intrapersonal time for reading, writing, thinking, exercising and being; work matters but should not be his whole life. | I have been playing a small trick on you. 00:00:29 |
| 2022-08-09 | restate | John suggests that maybe his whole life shouldn't worship at the altar of efficiency anyway. | How to Cook Beans and Resist Dread 00:00:58 |
| 2023-01-03 | restate | John wants to bring Booklist-era calm into 2023: his work is important, but not that important. | TAKE IT DOWN A NOTCH 00:02:26 |
| 2023-01-17 | restate | John tells Hank not to be afraid to take it down a couple notches if he needs to, because John worries about him. | John Green Answers the Most Searched Hank Green Questions 00:03:30 |
| 2023-04-18 | restate | John says Bill taught him that work matters and stories matter, but nothing matters like people do. | goodbye to my friend 00:03:01 |
| 2023-06-20 | restate | John says those great whys fire him up and make shared meeting time feel well used rather than wasted. | Reflections from a Terrible CEO 00:04:00 |
| 2023-10-17 | restate | For John, retirement means not obsessing over becoming richer, more famous or more viewed, and defining work by passion and impact. | My Next Book 00:01:27 |
| 2024-01-02 | restate | After 17 years John knows how to show up for the work, so from now on he won't make a video in weeks he doesn't want to, even if it hurts subscriber or view growth. | Being Old on YouTube 00:03:22 |
| 2024-04-23 | restate | John thinks he and Hank both need to find a better work-life balance. | Full Hank 00:03:30 |
| 2024-05-28 | restate | John says his other work feels extremely urgent because it involves many people's livelihoods and, with tuberculosis and maternal and infant mortality, many people's lives. | A Midlife Crisis 00:02:55 |
| 2024-08-03 | restate | John thanks Hank for encouraging him to take time off, which was helpful and productive even though he wasn't mainly producing things for the public. | I Love Hank. (Also I'm back.) 00:01:13 |
| 2024-08-06 | restate | A real-life friend offered to have John explain all his jobs to look at his work-life balance; it was not balanced. | What Helped Through Depression 00:00:58 |
| 2024-08-07 | restate | John says their real job is Nerdfighteria, making cool stuff with the community; during his break he saw it is the job he wants, unlike his other jobs. | Dear Hank and John Livestream! 00:22:40 |
| 2024-12-31 | restate | John says his relentless always-working habit has benefited his work but not other parts of his life, including his right shoulder, and the injury has him rethinking his relationship with work. | I Just Can't Do It Anymore 00:03:24 |
| 2025-01-07 | restate | John says all his other goals revolve around making his life less complicated and overwhelming. | The Format but it hurts to stand up 00:03:44 |
| 2025-10-03 | refine | John believes in the value of creative discipline: for most of his adult life he has made a YouTube video every Tuesday, the organizing principle of his creative production. | Is It Time to Retire? 00:01:23 |
| 2025-10-03 | restate | John doesn't think he wants to retire now, but increasingly feels inclined to take a week off here or there. | Is It Time to Retire? 00:02:22 |
| 2025-11-11 | restate | John says getting up, doing work and engaging in relationships is a path to wellness, even if it feels like an obstacle to wellness. | John's Annual Psychophysical Decline 00:00:29 |
| 2026-07-14 | restate | John apologizes for not touring more places, especially outside the US and Canada: balancing family and work, he tries to err on the side of family. | On the Road Again 00:03:37 |
| 2026-07-21 | restate | John says Camus leaves something out: unlike Sisyphus's, our work can benefit others in small ways, easing their burdens and bringing them joy or distraction. | One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy 00:04:23 |
Hank
| date | how | position | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-04-03 | first on record | Hank holds that even the best job has days you don't want to do it; that is what work is, since no one would pay you to do what you'd do anyway. | April 3rd: Seattle! 00:02:05 |
| 2012-06-08 | restate | Hank says he works a lot because work is more like a hobby for him. | How to be More Productive...With Hank! 00:02:19 |
| 2017-05-26 | restate | Hank says following your dreams disappoints because work has much more to do with the people you do it with and your own attitude than with what you do. | Some Rough Advice for the "Real World" 00:00:30 |
| 2017-06-09 | restate | Hank's first unhealthy secret: he has convinced himself that if he isn't using all his tools to do the most good and give people good jobs, he is less of a good person, maybe too much pressure. | Some Unhealthy Productivity Tips (and some Healthy ones) 00:02:00 |
| 2017-08-11 | restate | Hank says life is not a job training program: we are not in college, or on Earth, to get jobs. | Life is not a Job Training Program 00:01:45 |
| 2017-10-27 | restate | Hank avoided making this video for years partly because he works too hard, which is a problem, and such content assumes everyone wants the maker's life; there are many great lives. | The Secret to my Productivity 00:00:04 |
| 2018-07-06 | restate | Hank plans to schedule his vacation days far in advance so he can't skip a week for lack of good ideas: he needs the pressure. | This Ends in Death 00:00:55 |
| 2018-11-09 | restate | Hank says that if he doesn't know exactly where the line between life and work is, maybe that is because work is part of life. | I Don't Know What Work Is 00:03:13 |
| 2018-11-16 | restate | Hank says Vlogbrothers has never felt like maintenance or keeping a thing alive to him: it is a creative outlet with freedom and complete control over the process. | Doing This Makes Me Happy, but Maybe it Doesn't' Seem that Way? 00:02:36 |
| 2019-01-11 | restate | Hank says holidays remind us to be thankful for others, and remembering people important to us reminds us we are important too, regardless of our economic output. | What is Burnout? 00:03:26 |
| 2019-02-22 | shift | Hank says a business opportunity existing doesn't mean he'll pursue it, though he once felt that not creating all the economic value he could meant failing society. | I Don't Want The Same Things Anymore 00:00:58 |
| 2019-04-26 | restate | Hank doesn't love that paid labor is currently one of the main ways we define ourselves, but work is commonly a huge part of people's lives and identities. | It's Time to Care About "Business" 00:00:58 |
| 2021-10-15 | restate | Hank says that after all these years making a Vlogbrothers video never feels like going to work: the goal isn't productivity, just making things and seeing if people like them. | What is Pizzamas? ...and a New Friend 00:01:56 |
| 2022-07-22 | restate | Asked why they work so hard on businesses they don't profit from, Hank used to say they have plenty; his refined answer is that they are more interested in impact than wealth, and he wouldn't work half as hard on the sock club just for money. | What are These Boys Doing?? 00:01:10 |
| 2023-11-17 | restate | Hank says that amid his existential anxiety and confusion, a project like this is his job among his other jobs, and a pretty good one. | WHAT AM I DOING 00:05:29 |
| 2023-12-01 | restate | Hank says doing work just because you have to is okay and part of life, but he wanted other motivations. | It's OK if you think less of me after this! 00:03:15 |
| 2024-09-06 | restate | At 44, Hank knows his heavy workload is no problem while things go okay; it becomes one when two or three things go wrong at once and he can't fix them fast enough. | I feel like I can't talk about this… 00:03:24 |
| 2025-01-03 | restate | Hank says he never enjoys video games or music anymore because he has put so much on his plate; he loves them when he makes time but denies himself them for supposedly important work, a big current struggle. | My 2025 Bingo Card 00:01:52 |
| 2025-09-26 | restate | Hank says the more he imagines himself as a tool, the more he accomplishes and the more impact he makes, but the less happy he is. | I've Not Been Doing Well 00:02:27 |
| 2026-08-21 | restate | Hank is certain valuing life by output is wrong; the third most-quoted passage of his first book says you will struggle to feel productive until you accept your own joy can be something you produce. | Not (Just) Dunking on Jeff Bezos 00:07:48 |
| 2026-10-09 | restate | Hank says brains and society tell a lie: how much someone produces doesn't show how hard it was to make themselves work; his output comes mostly from opportunities to work on things that matter. | The Productivity Lie 00:01:57 |
| 2026-10-16 | restate | Hank's joke answered a line he wrote, which he calls a pretty big deal: you will always struggle with not feeling productive until you accept that your own joy can be something you produce. | Is Happiness the Goal? 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).