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You just lost THE GAME!

2010-06-18 (said on 2010-06-19 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded -1 days later) · letter vlog · Hank · 3:43 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Internet & YouTube, Sports) · mode: Personal essay

After a mock intervention over John's World Cup obsession, Hank makes everyone lose The Game and argues the meme hides a Buddhist truth: every game is lost, so what matters is choosing the right game, and the only real way to win is not to care if you lose.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Mock intervention with Nerdfighteria: John must cut back on soccer (a second Twitter account for the World Cup); it is just a game

  • ★★ Hank, with Nerdfighteria, stages a mock intervention: John must cut back on soccer, since making a second Twitter account to tweet about the World Cup is too much. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria, Twitter
  • ★ Hank won't argue whether soccer is a good game, but however great it is, it is just a game. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Hank loses The Game and makes viewers lose it; the rules; at first he thought it dumb and annoying

  • ★★ Hank explains The Game: you are always playing it, there is no way to win, and thinking about it means you lose. — 00:00:29 · The Game
  • ★ At first Hank thought The Game was dumb: a self-fulfilling statement that is mildly interesting but mostly just annoying. — 00:01:00 · The Game

00:01:29 — The only way to win is not to know you're playing; desire leads to loss (Buddhism); academic researchers; choose the right game; win by not caring if you lose

  • ★★★ Hank has come to find that the fascinating thing about The Game is that the only way to win is not to know you're playing, a bit of wisdom about human folly. — 00:01:29 · The Game
  • ★★★ Hank says the meme's truth is that all desire, and in some ways all knowledge, leads to loss: a principal tenet of Buddhism hiding inside an internet meme. — 00:01:55 · The Game
  • ★★ As an example, Hank says academic researchers, who do much good, fight their whole careers for recognition in obscure journals and, once they get it, only want more. — 00:01:55
  • ★★★ Hank argues the game can be anything, fame, money, romantic conquest or even good things like ending poverty or a happy family; if you live for it, you never win. — 00:02:25 · The Game
  • ★★★ Hank concludes what matters is playing the right game: every marriage not ending in divorce ends in death, fights are always lost, but some are worth fighting. — 00:02:25

  • ★★★ Hank says thinking you'll only be happy when you win is the surest way never to be happy; the only real way to win is to not care if you lose. — 00:02:54

    “The only real way to win is to not care if you lose.”

00:03:23 — Sign-off: see you on Monday

Humor (significant)

  • Hank and Nerdfighteria stage an intervention over John's soccer obsession, citing his second Twitter account for the World Cup. — 00:00:00

    “that person is probably spending a little bit too much time thinking about soccer.”

  • Right after insisting soccer is just a game, Hank thinks of The Game. — 00:00:29

    “And God, I just lost the game.”

  • Hank breaks the bad news to everyone watching the video. — 00:00:29

    “You guys just lost the game too.”

  • Hank used to think The Game was only a pointless trolling device. — 00:01:00

    “the game is actually more than a way for 12 year old boys to exercise some tiny and meaningless amount of power over other people.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: The Game

Also: Buddhism · FIFA World Cup · hedonic adaptation · Twitter

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 3 videos, 2010-06-18 – 2010-06-23.