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Grab It By The Testicle

2011-05-16 · Hank · 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.

In a rhymed comic commencement address, Hank tells the 2011 graduates that they don't know jack and must keep learning on their own, that insecurity never ends, that they should grab life while being kind to people and defining success well, and that they should have fun.

What is said

00:00:00 — Verse opening: advice for college and high-school graduates in the familiar commencement format; life will partly suck but cannot be refused; mock motivational overstatement and the word abjure

  • ★★ Hank offers advice in verse to the year's college and high-school graduates, in the familiar commencement-speech format. — 00:00:01 · education
  • ★★ Hank warns graduates that what comes next is kind of going to suck, but they cannot abstain from it. (playful) (hedged) — 00:00:23

00:00:46 — You don't know jack: school taught you to learn; you are ending one structure, not learning; Hank's chemistry degree and self-teaching; insecurity; the next step may be a fall or a flight

  • ★★★ Hank tells graduates they don't know jack: the best they can hope is to have been taught to learn, and they are ending one structure, not learning. — 00:00:46 · education
  • ★★ Hank says everyone keeps learning one way or another, whatever they do: parenting, music, coffee, spreadsheets, hotels, laws, websites. — 00:00:58 · education
  • ★★★ Hank says he majored in chemistry, now makes videos for nerds as an entrepreneur, and taught himself 90% of what he has learned. — 00:01:11
  • ★★ Hank says being largely self-taught is normal and will, and should, be true for most of his listeners too. — 00:01:16
  • ★★ Hank tells graduates that insecurity is something they will always feel. — 00:01:23
  • ★★ Hank says the next step of life might look like a fall but could be a flight. (hedged) — 00:01:28

00:01:39 — Grab life by the testicle; be careful with people; define success rightly, not by toys; try to be happy

  • ★★★ Whether facing hell or a festival, Hank urges graduates to grab life 'by the testicle' and make the most of their one shot. (playful) — 00:01:42
  • ★★ Hank says that while grabbing life, graduates should be careful with people and not be creeps. — 00:01:53
  • ★★★ Hank says success may be self-defined, but define it wrong and you never find it, or reach it at the expense of those you love; life isn't won by dying with the most toys. (hedged) — 00:01:58
  • ★★ Hank says it's just life, and asks what the point is if you are not at least trying to be happy. — 00:02:11

00:02:14 — Summary: one, you don't know jack; two, be nice to others; finally, have fun; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank sums up: you don't know jack; be nice to others, whether executive, barista or stay-at-home parent; and have fun. — 00:02:14

Humor (significant)

  • In mock-motivational verse Hank tells graduates there is no 'I don't wanna': if you don't like it, then die. — 00:00:33 > «Well no, I'm not condoning suicide I'm just trying to be motivational»
  • The yawning pit of the next step of life might be filled with ice cream... — 00:01:34 > «And you might be lactose intolerant, but you get what I mean»
  • Whether graduates face hell or a festival, Hank's point is to seize life, in his own anatomy. — 00:01:42 > «My point here, right now, is grab it by the testicle.»

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