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Advice on Dumb Boyfriends, Going to College, and More

2010-05-10 · John · watch on YouTube · Everyday life · advice recommendation

What is said

00:00:00 — Inspired by Michael Buckley's advice show Dear Buck, John asked Nerdfighters on Twitter for problems and will give advice today and Friday

  • ★★ Inspired by Michael Buckley's new advice show Dear Buck, John will give advice today and again on Friday, with the caveat that his advice may suck. — 00:00:00
  • ★ John says he asked Nerdfighters on Twitter whether they had any problems, and it turns out they do. — 00:00:09 · Nerdfighteria, Twitter

00:00:20 — Scared of going to college far away: not binge drinking; everyone is in the same boat, like alligators

  • ★★ John says homesick college freshmen generally cope by binge drinking, which he doesn't recommend. (playful) — 00:00:25
  • ★★ John says American campuses treat getting drunk and throwing up on someone as intimacy; maybe old-fashioned, he thinks throwing up on someone is not an act of friendship. (playful) (hedged) — 00:00:31
  • ★★ John advises college freshmen to remember that everyone is in the same boat; like alligators, they are as afraid of you as you are of them. (playful) — 00:00:45

00:00:54 — Cutting a subplot means rewriting half a novel: rewrite it; John cut 55,000 of 62,000 words; all writing is rewriting

  • ★★★ To a viewer who must cut a subplot and rewrite half a novel, John says rewrite it and don't complain: all writing is rewriting. — 00:00:59
  • ★★ John says a version of his current book was about 62,000 words long and he ended up cutting 55,000 of them. — 00:01:03

00:01:11 — A guy who 'maybe' likes you and hides it from your ex: don't bother with someone who maybe likes you

  • ★★★ On a guy who only 'maybe' likes her and hides it from her ex, John says a romantic partner shouldn't maybe like you; don't bother with him. — 00:01:16

00:01:36 — Getting Nerdfighter friends in real life (wear the pizza shirt) and standing out at a job interview (the pizza suit)

  • ★ To get more Nerdfighter friends in real life, John suggests wearing your pizza shirt everywhere until someone recognizes it. (playful) — 00:01:39 · Nerdfighteria, Pizza John

00:01:54 — A boyfriend who says you're too smart (the Venn diagram is a circle) and a best friend 'in denial' who may just not like you

  • ★★★ To a girl whose boyfriend says she's too smart for him, John says this enrages him: boys who don't like smart girls are exactly the boys not worth dating. — 00:02:03
  • ★★★ On getting a best friend 'out of denial', John suggests the friend may simply not like you; some people won't want to kiss you, and refusing to accept that breeds narcissism. (hedged) — 00:02:22

00:02:43 — Curing hiccups: patience; everything John thought would not end, ended

  • ★★ For hiccups, and everything else, John counsels patience: every other time he thought something wasn't going to end, it ended. — 00:02:43

00:02:54 — Bieber fever cured by the Mountain Goats; the website themountaingoatswillcureyourbieberfever.com exists

  • ★★ For a private person songs stuck in your head ('Bieber fever'), John prescribes a heavy dose of the Mountain Goats and the website themountaingoatswillcureyourbieberfever.com. (playful) — 00:02:54 · The Mountain Goats

00:03:20 — More advice on Friday, leave problems in the comments; hope Hank enjoyed w00tstock; sign-off

  • ★★ John will give more advice on Friday and asks viewers with problems to leave them in the comments. — 00:03:20
  • ★ John hopes Hank had a great time at w00tstock. — 00:03:24

Humor (significant)

  • Reassuring a nervous college freshman that everyone is in the same boat. — 00:00:50 > «It's like alligators, they're just as afraid of you as you are of them.»
  • Asked how to stand out at a job interview, John recommends the pizza suit. — 00:01:47 > «that I have never gotten a job as a result of an interview.»
  • A viewer asks whether to act stupid because her boyfriend says she's too smart; John transforms on screen. — 00:02:03 > «There's only a few things that turn me into a giant squid of anger, and one of them begins:»
  • John answers the too-smart-girlfriend question with a line he says he has said before. — 00:02:12 > «The Venn diagram of boys who don't like smart girls and boys you don't want to date is a circle.»

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