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Solving Your Problems!

2012-06-19 · Q&A · John · 3:32 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: civic or action cta, fundraising ask, community lore

John answers the problems Nerdfighters shared after Hank's Friday video with a mix of jokes and advice: empathy, assuming the best of strangers, getting out of the house, supporting bookstores, and three easy ways to participate (Kiva, Fahrenheit 451, nice comments).

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Greeting; Hank asked Nerdfighters on Friday to share problems; 'If you got a problem, yo, I'll solve it'

  • ★★ John says that on Friday Hank asked Nerdfighters to share their problems, they did, and John is here to help solve them. — 00:00:00 · Nerdfighteria, Hank Green

00:00:11 — Problems: overheating laptop, spiders (Charlotte's Web), the dark, a vampire sister, the last bus seat, a dryer setting off the fire alarm

  • ★ For an overheating laptop John suggests cleaning it, and if that fails a $20 cooling pad. — 00:00:11
  • ★★ To someone who thinks spiders are a big problem, John says a lack of spiders would be a bigger one and prescribes Charlotte's Web, 192 beautiful pages. (playful) — 00:00:18
  • ★★ When someone takes the last bus seat, John advises assuming, however improbably, that they need it more than you; it may not be true but it helps keep you sane. — 00:00:57

00:01:18 — Problems: never knowing what to do (museum, poetry, birdwatching), caps lock, ankle-grabbing stairs, bookstore replaced by eyebrow store, Hufflepuff, writing community (figment.com)

  • ★★ For people who never know what to do, John says the easiest thing is what we are already doing, usually nothing, and suggests visiting an art museum alone, reading poetry, and birdwatching in a park while inventing bird names. — 00:01:21
  • ★ For a broken caps lock key John suggests disabling it in Mac system preferences or with the free PC application KeyTweak. — 00:01:41
  • ★★★ On a mall bookstore replaced by an eyebrow design store, John says to buy books at bookstores: if you want bookstores to exist, support them, because how you spend your money shapes the world. — 00:02:16
  • ★ For beginning writers who lack a community, John recommends figment.com. — 00:02:32

00:02:36 — Watching vs participating: three easy ways to be nerdfightastic (Kiva loan, Fahrenheit 451, nice comments)

  • ★★★ John says participating is more fun than watching and gives three easy ways to be nerdfightastic: a free first Kiva loan, reading Fahrenheit 451, and replying to comments with niceness, which is surprisingly entertaining. — 00:02:39 · nerdfightastic

00:03:02 — Spelling and nerdiness, older Nerdfighters' Facebook group, finding local Nerdfighters, mermaids; sign-off

  • ★★ John rejects the premise that bad spelling limits nerdiness: his brother is a terrible speller and a tremendous nerd. (playful) — 00:03:04 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John, also an older Nerdfighter, says he has created a Facebook group for older Nerdfighters so they feel less alone. — 00:03:10 · Facebook, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ To find local Nerdfighters, John points to Facebook, the Ning and Your Pants, where there are many location-specific Nerdfighter groups. (playful) — 00:03:16 · Facebook, Nerdfighter Ning, in your pants

Humor (significant)

  • A viewer's sister is annoying and a vampire; John lists the two keys to sibling vampiric relationships. — 00:00:46

    “Number 1, empathy. Number 2, no biting.”

  • A viewer's clothes dryer set off the fire alarm and she tells the alarm to work better. — 00:01:11

    “Because it seems to me that the alarm is working perfectly.”

  • A viewer fears someone under her open stairs will grab her ankles; John walks through the scenario. — 00:01:52

    “Frankly of all the possible home intruder outcomes, grabbed by the ankle is like the best!”

  • A viewer has a slight fear of being drowned by mermaids; John reassures her, then echoes Prufrock. — 00:03:22

    “Well, until the human voices wake you.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Projects: Nerdfighter Ning · Your Pants

Works: Charlotte's Web · Fahrenheit 451 · Ice Ice Baby · The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock · Twilight

Organizations: Facebook · Figment · Kiva

Terms: doobly-doo · in your pants · nerdfightastic

Characters: Hufflepuff

Products: Google Maps · KeyTweak · Macintosh

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