Skip to content

Happy Graduation, Future Dead People

2015-05-15 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:34 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Pop culture) · mode: Personal essay

In a graduation message, Hank tells viewers they are among the most powerful people who ever lived, that their job is to solve more problems than they create, and, via EVE Online, that culture is the collective actions of people, so their actions build our world.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Crash Course traffic shows students cramming; a video for graduates and everyone else

  • ★ Hank says Crash Course traffic shows students freaking out and bingeing Crash Course Chemistry, which means many people are about to graduate. (playful) — 00:00:01 · Crash Course

00:00:18 — 'Future dead person': you are among the luckiest and most powerful people ever

  • ★★★ Addressing a 'future dead person', Hank says the viewer is very likely one of the luckiest and most powerful people who has ever existed. (hedged) — 00:00:22
  • ★★ Hank says people rarely feel powerful unless they suddenly gain power or have far more than those around them, and it is probably good they don't, since it might be crippling. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Hank says that in absolute rather than relative power, the viewer is basically a god. (hedged) — 00:00:40
  • ★★ As examples, Hank says you can hold all human knowledge in your hand, and a hot shower on a cold day is a luxury most of humankind could never dream of. — 00:00:47
  • ★★ Hank says you can write something or make a video that potentially affects millions of people, which is not normal and is lots of power. — 00:00:59

00:01:09 — A complicated time with no practical advice; solve more problems than you create

  • ★★ Hank says this is a complicated time and he has no practical advice; graduates' careers will probably look unlike any before, so they must be thoughtful, careful and a little cunning. (hedged) — 00:01:10
  • ★★ Hank says that by the time graduates reach retirement age, jobs might not be a thing anymore. (hedged) — 00:01:25
  • ★★★ Hank says he can definitely say that we are now both creating and solving problems faster than ever before. — 00:01:31

  • ★★★ Hank says the only thing anyone can ask of a person is to solve more problems than they create. — 00:01:40

    “solve more problems than you create”

  • ★ Hank adds that graduates should also take care of themselves and, ideally, have a good time. — 00:01:46

  • ★★ Hank tells viewers they are very powerful and can make their world and themselves better, so they should. — 00:01:46

00:01:54 — EVE Online, whose culture of theft and betrayal was made by its players

  • ★★ Hank describes EVE Online as a massively multiplayer space capitalism game set in the fictional galaxy of New Eden, spanning more than 7,800 star systems. — 00:01:58
  • ★★ Hank says every EVE player defines success for themselves, but the game's overall culture is one of theft, distrust, betrayal and greed. — 00:02:05
  • ★★ Hank says EVE's developers did not build that culture in; individual players taking individual actions defined it. — 00:02:16

00:02:23 — Our culture is our collective actions; choose compassion; your actions build our world

  • ★★★ Hank says our real-world culture is just the collective actions and decisions of people. — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ Hank says that culture is now the single most important factor in our species' health and sustainability, and we all collectively decide what it is. — 00:02:34
  • ★★★ Hank says it may feel we are destined for a cutthroat world of ever-increasing inequality, but not if we choose compassion: we decide our world by being it. — 00:02:42 · economic inequality, empathy
  • ★★★ Hank says this is the real power: not a job or bank account but one every human has had, unrelated to immortality or fame, and perhaps the most important thing anyone does. (hedged) — 00:02:57
  • ★★ Hank says we educate and improve ourselves to become more effective at making positive changes, creating more solutions than problems. — 00:03:09 · education

  • ★★★ Hank concludes that in the end the viewer's actions build our world, so they should not take that for granted. — 00:03:18

    “your actions are what build our world”

00:03:23 — Sign-off

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: culture · EVE Online

Also: Crash Course · economic inequality · education · empathy

Only in the description or credits: DFTBA Records

Also centred on culture: On Hating Christmas · Some Reasons why People Suck

← Previous: Becoming Someone Else · Next → Pain Destroys Language: John after the Dentist