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Is Success a Bad Idea? (Pizzamas Day 9 of 10)

2015-11-19 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion

Hank argues that 'success' as society uses it (being richer, more powerful or better known than most) rests on scarcity and luck, is not needed for happiness, and that people should be valued in ways that have nothing to do with scarcity.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Last Pizzamas video; recap of the two weeks; Hank is in New Hampshire visiting family; his life has become weird and not normal over eight or nine years of Vlogbrothers

  • ★ Hank says this is his last Pizzamas video; the long couple of weeks had happy and sad times, reunion videos and charity galas. — 00:00:00 · Pizzamas, Reunion video
  • ★ Hank is in New Hampshire visiting family, which he calls an unusual level of weird. — 00:00:09
  • ★★ Hank says his life has become weird, cool, wonderful and complicated over eight or nine years of Vlogbrothers; he is professionally respected and fairly well known, so one might call him a success. — 00:00:13 · Vlogbrothers

00:00:29 — Respected and well known, Hank is called a success and feels troubled by it: the word puts people in a rare category everyone is told to strive for, reached only by luck

  • ★★ Since people began congratulating him on his success, Hank has felt weird and troubled by it, wondering whether that is modesty or false modesty. — 00:00:41
  • ★★★ Hank argues that 'congratulations on your success' places you in a category only a very small share of humans could ever reach, while implying everyone should strive for it. — 00:00:56
  • ★★ Hank says the only way to become such a success is to stumble into a great big pile of luck. (playful) — 00:01:15

00:01:27 — Fame as face recognition; Hank was happy before he was successful; two definitions of success, the second based on scarcity (fame, top 20% of income)

  • ★★ There isn't room in human brains for everyone to be known by many people; Hank defines fame as having your face recognised by more people than average. — 00:01:27 · celebrity
  • ★★★ Hank was happy before he was 'successful', in 2006, with friends, family and interesting projects; few would call success necessary for happiness, yet we conflate them. — 00:01:41
  • ★★★ Hank contrasts success as achieving what you set out to do (the good definition) with achieving what most people cannot, which rests on scarcity: not everyone can be famous or in the top fifth of income. — 00:02:03 · celebrity
  • ★★ Hank thinks everyone craves societally recognised success and he has some of it, but he does not need it to feel valued or happy. (hedged) — 00:02:35

00:02:38 — We should value ourselves and each other apart from scarcity of money, fame and power; Hank doesn't know what success is, only successes; gratitude for friends, family and community

  • ★★★ Hank thinks it is very important for society to find ways to value ourselves and each other that have nothing to do with the scarcity of money, fame or power. (hedged) — 00:02:49
  • ★★ Hank would rather be, and associate with, people who want a positive impact on a few people than collect wealth and power at others' expense. — 00:03:04

  • ★★★ Ending his Pizzamas videos, Hank says he still doesn't know what success is: he knows individual successes, but acquiring success or 'being a success' is a made-up thing. (hedged) — 00:03:15 · Pizzamas

    “I don't know what "success" is! I still don't. I know what "successes" are.”

  • ★★ Hank is grateful for friends, family and a community that make him feel valued, make him question himself and his beliefs, and challenge him to become a better person. — 00:03:29 · Nerdfighteria

00:03:44 — Sign-off slip (Tuesday, Friday, tomorrow); one day left of Pizzamas shirts and products at DFTBA.com; thanks for Pizzamas

  • ★ Hank notes there is one day left of Pizzamas to get the shirts and other products at DFTBA.com, and thanks everyone for a great Pizzamas. — 00:03:48 · Pizzamas, DFTBA Records

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank says compliments on his success put him inside a worldview he doesn't share; what he thinks important is financial and social security. (hedged) — video description
  • ★★★ Hank writes that basing a person's value on the unequal distribution of finite resources, whether money, control of others or the attention of others, is a bad idea, and that he does not want to be part of that system or of how people justify it. — video description
  • ★★★ Defining success as accomplishing what you set out to do with positive impact on people's lives, Hank says the vast majority of people are successes: most people die successful, and imagining success as a rare commodity is wrong. — video description

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Scarcity

Also: celebrity · DFTBA Records · New Hampshire · Pizzamas · Reunion video

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