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YOU ARE WRONG!

2011-01-19 · Hank, character:hank-sock · watch on YouTube · Philosophy & meaning · reflection essay

Lower-confidence wave

2011 videos did not pass the QA gate (17 %); their analysis is shown but less reliable.

Picking up John's line that 'the truth resists simplicity', Hank argues that even simple questions are complicated, that we crave simple stories and solutions (from viral news to the Tucson shooting), and that maturity means accepting we are almost always a little wrong.

What is said

00:00:00 — Reply to John's cotton video: even cotton is unimaginably complicated

  • ★★ Hank thanks John for Monday's glimpse into the complicated world of cotton, saying John didn't even scratch the surface of how complicated the global cotton industry is. — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★ The description says Hank Sock posted an essay on why we don't drink pig's milk on the Nerdfighter Ning. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighter Ning

00:00:30 — John's phrase 'the truth resists simplicity'; writer vs goofball; is there a word for a simple truth about rare simple truths?

  • ★★★ Hank recalls John recently telling him that 'it all comes down to the fact that the truth resists simplicity', a line he loves. — 00:00:29 · John Green > «the truth resists simplicity»
  • ★ John is always saying marvelous things like that while Hank must type for hours to find one: that's why John is the professional writer and Hank the professional goofball. (playful) — 00:00:35 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank loves that the phrase is a simple truth about how rare simple truths are, and asks Nerdfighters in the comments whether there is a word for that. — 00:00:54 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:06 — Even simple questions are complicated: the sciences, history and the Magna Carta, and Hank Sock on why we don't drink pig's milk

  • ★★ We think the hard sciences are the most complicated things we learn, but they are the simple ones because they have definite answers, at least at high-school level, Hank says, then concedes much there isn't definite either. — 00:01:06
  • ★★ History is even more complicated: nobody knows the answer to a test question on the implications of the Magna Carta. (playful) — 00:01:21
  • ★★ Hank Sock says there are good reasons we don't drink pig's milk, having to do with pigs' reproductive system and the practice of breeding pigs for meat rather than dairy. (playful) — 00:01:42
  • ★★ Hank concludes that even the reason we don't drink pig's milk is complicated. — 00:01:59

00:02:09 — We want simple stories and solutions: the golden-voice homeless man, Edward and Bella, a Toyota hybrid ad, the Tucson shooting

  • ★★★ We love simplicity and want simple stories, Hank says: a homeless man with a golden voice unrecognised until the internet found him, when really he trained his voice and became homeless through alcohol and drug addiction. — 00:02:09
  • ★★ We want simple solutions: a Toyota ad suggests an amusement park could be powered by a hybrid drive, which Hank says would violate the 'third law of thermodynamics', that you can't create energy from nothing. (playful) — 00:02:37
  • ★★★ We want simple assumptions about the Tucson tragedy that blame those we already blame, when really it is a breakdown in the human brain, probably the most complicated system in the known universe. (hedged) — 00:02:55
  • ★★ That same system, badly damaged, is somehow still functioning in Congresswoman Giffords, proving again that the truth resists simplicity. — 00:03:08

00:03:19 — Thesis: you are almost always wrong; accept that we lack answers and that simple explanations are flawed

  • ★★★ Hank thinks a principal facet of being a mature, healthy and effective person is understanding that you are almost always wrong, maybe not all the way, but at least a little. (hedged) — 00:03:19
  • ★★★ As a species we don't know most answers; accepting that, and that our simple explanations are flawed, sometimes dangerously so, especially in political news analysis, may be the hardest and most important part. (hedged) — 00:03:30

00:03:52 — Sign-off: off to play Lego Harry Potter, where good and evil are clear

  • ★ Hank signs off to go play Lego Harry Potter, where at least he knows the difference between good and evil. (playful) — 00:03:52

Humor (significant)

  • Hank envies John's knack for marvelous phrases, which take Hank hours of typing, then slaps himself to prove it. — 00:00:44 > «that's why you're the professional writer and I'm the professional goofball»
  • Hank lists what might have happened without the Magna Carta: Nazis, death, genetically engineered space monsters. — 00:01:35 > «Maybe we'd all be drinking pig's milk for breakfast»
  • Hank marvels that Hank Sock is such a specialist on pig-milking practices. — 00:02:05 > «Well, there's a lot of stuff you don't know about me.»
  • Hank lists the simple stories we want: the untainted love of Edward and Bella, perfect and immortal. — 00:02:30 > «and it can be, because it's fake»

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