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How to Become An Adult

2011-08-31 · John · watch on YouTube · Everyday life · advice recommendation

Lower-confidence wave

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

John tells people leaving school that the 'real world' mixes crushing monotony and paralyzing terror, that adulthood gets much better with time, and that they need a mentor (an 'Ilene'), as Ilene Cooper was for him and Looking for Alaska.

What is said

00:00:00 — Greeting; 'talk to people other than your brother week'; shirt matches the boxes, so John changes

  • ★ Following Hank's letter to the aliens, John notes it is apparently 'talk to people other than your brother week' and addresses others too. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:11 — Addressing new graduates: the 'real world' as a mix of crushing monotony and paralyzing terror; adulthood gets much better

  • ★★★ John tells people finishing formal education that the 'real world' is no more or less real than earlier worlds but mixes crushing monotony and paralyzing terror: a 'CMAPT world'. (hedged) — 00:00:11 > «It's not a real world, it's more of a CMAPT world.»
  • ★★ John describes the monotony (same wake-up, traffic, job and bills, with TV, games and YouTube as distractions) and the terror that a slip-up means being homeless, hungry and alone; many people feel this. — 00:00:32 · YouTube
  • ★★★ John says adulthood gets much, much better. — 00:00:50

00:00:55 — His son puked on his face last night, yet the night beat almost every night of his first two post-college years

  • ★★ John says his son puked on his face last night and he slept about two hours, yet he ranks the night above almost every night of his first two years after college. — 00:00:55

00:01:16 — Unemployment and underemployment; two solutions: time, and getting an Ilene

  • ★★ John says there's 'like a 20% chance' a new graduate is unemployed and 'like a 100% chance' they are underemployed; unless in a successful time-lord rock band, you're not doing what you want. (playful) (hedged) — 00:01:16
    • number check: 100% — doubtful
  • ★★★ John offers two solutions to the monotony and terror: time, because these things take time, and getting an 'Ilene' (a mentor). — 00:01:30

00:01:37 — His story: chaplaincy, Booklist, Ilene Cooper, lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, 40 pages that became Looking for Alaska

  • ★★ After college John worked a few months as a student chaplain at a children's hospital, then at Booklist, where 90% of his job was typing ten-digit codes; older coworkers helped him with grown-up things. — 00:01:37
  • ★★ John says Booklist colleague Ilene Cooper, author of 20+ children's books, agreed over lunch at the Cheesecake Factory that his vague boarding-school novel idea sounded great. — 00:02:03
  • ★★★ In early 2002 John brought Ilene 40 single-spaced pages; over the next two years she worked with him to turn them into the novel that became Looking for Alaska. — 00:02:32 · Looking for Alaska

00:02:46 — Ilene is why everything exists; you need an Ilene; John as a little Ilene for Ransom Riggs; advice: find someone better and listen

  • ★★★ John says Ilene is the only reason Looking for Alaska exists, he has a job writing books, and there is Brotherhood 2.0 or Nerdfighteria. — 00:02:46 · Looking for Alaska, Brotherhood 2.0, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says he cannot be everyone's Ilene; he already tries to be one for a bunch of people, a little for Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. — 00:02:54
  • ★★★ John's advice for life after school: find someone who is doing something you want to do better than you can do it, and listen to them. — 00:03:07

00:03:11 — Plug for Ilene's Angel in My Pocket; 42,000 copies signed; hand needs occupational therapy; sign-off

  • ★★ John recommends Ilene's book Angel in My Pocket for the middle-grade reader in your life, with a link in the doobly-doo. — 00:03:11
  • ★★★ John says he has signed 42,000 copies and will continue, but first must see a doctor because his hand isn't working right and he needs occupational therapy. — 00:03:20

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