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Never Satisfied: The Story of Humans ¦-/

2015-11-27 (said on 2015-11-26 — implied: date said in the video; uploaded 1 day later) · letter vlog · Hank · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Projects, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, self promotion

Hank, picking up John's video on how we misjudge how good the world is, argues that humans normalize every achievement (antibiotics, vaccines, marriage equality) and that we need both dissatisfaction and gratitude for past progress, lest the future look hopeless.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Hank at the DFTBA.com warehouse in the busy season; DFTBA's creators and products; recording on Thanksgiving

  • ★ Hank spent much of the week at the DFTBA.com warehouse during the busy season, mostly signing things. — 00:00:00 · DFTBA Records
  • ★★ Hank says DFTBA now works with many creators (Hannah Hart, Rhett and Link, GloZell Green, MinuteEarth, This Star Won't Go Out), selling shirts, hats, posters, mugs and tea, helping creators make a living. — 00:00:10 · DFTBA Records, This Star Won't Go Out (charity)

00:00:29 — Reply to John's video: if we cured cancer we would normalize, as we have with antibiotics and vaccines

  • ★★★ Hank's thought experiment: if cancer were cured tomorrow we would celebrate for years, but within 20 or 30 years we would normalize and just live in a world without cancer. (hypothetical) — 00:00:42 · cancer
  • ★★★ Hank says antibiotics and vaccines have saved billions of lives, yet people treat them as merely nice rather than being emotionally moved by no longer dying as humans used to. — 00:01:04 · vaccine

00:01:27 — Marriage equality already taken for granted; best time to be alive; a war killing 60 million and segregation within living memory; maybe good that we move on

  • ★★ Hank notes that everyone watching (except babies under six months) was born into an America where couples could be denied marriage because of their gender, yet we have already stopped being excited about the change. — 00:01:27 · United States
  • ★★ Hank suggests it may be good that humans are not built to decide they have done well enough and stop progressing. (hedged) — 00:01:42
  • ★★★ Hank asserts that, objectively and on average, this is the best time to be alive in human history; we have achieved much to decrease human suffering. — 00:01:49 · progress
  • ★★ Hank says that during his grandmother's lifetime a war killed 60 million people. — 00:02:05
  • ★★ Hank says his mother was born into an America where black people had separate schools and bathrooms. — 00:02:10 · Sydney Green, United States
  • ★★ Hank says it is impossible to feel all these accomplishments every second, and perhaps it is beautiful that we move on from successes to fret over the next big problem. (hedged) — 00:02:15

00:02:27 — We need both dissatisfaction and recognition of what we have done; being thankful for the billions who worked to make life better

  • ★★★ Hank argues that never looking back makes everything look hopeless, so we need a mix of dissatisfaction and work for better, plus recognition of what we have achieved as a species and as individuals. — 00:02:27 · progress
  • ★★ Hank is glad to live in a world without smallpox and with twenty one pilots songs and pumpkin pie, and says one day of Thanksgiving a year is not enough. (playful) — 00:02:45
  • ★★★ Hank says being thankful for the billions of people who worked to make life better for their children, himself among those children, motivates him and makes him happier and more effective. (hedged) — 00:02:54
  • ★★ Hank hopes to honour those people by both appreciating what they have done and building on it. (hedged) — 00:03:09

00:03:15 — Sign-off; DFTBA.com 20% off, Bobble John and Bobble Hank; bobblehead skit introducing the Dear Hank and John podcast

  • ★★ Hank announces everything at DFTBA.com is 20% off this week (week of 23 November 2015) and that Bobble John and Bobble Hank bobbleheads are available. — 00:03:16 · DFTBA Records, John Green bobblehead
  • ★ A bobblehead skit introduces Dear Hank and John, a comedy podcast in which the brothers answer questions, give dubious advice and bring news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon. (playful) — 00:03:36 · Dear Hank and John, Mars, AFC Wimbledon

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank writes that he does not think the way we focus on problems is necessarily the most effective, but that it is undeniably human. (hedged) — video description
  • ★★★ Hank argues we need to focus less on who our opponents are and more on what we are actually trying to achieve; increasingly in America he sees the discourse as 'the problem is those people in our way' rather than 'the problem is the problem'. (hedged) — video description · United States
  • ★★ Solving human problems is very complicated, Hank writes, and it is easy to misunderstand stakeholders, worldviews and human nature and to think the opposition evil when it is simply different. — video description
  • ★★ Hank expects the coming year to be really hard, with campaign rhetoric even more toxic by next October, which he finds terrifying. (hedged) — video description
  • ★★ Hank asks people to do nice things for each other, get outside their bubbles, and understand that others are people whose lives of perhaps bad experiences and conversations led them to think perhaps bad things. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: hedonic adaptation · progress

Also: People: GloZell · Hannah Hart · Sydney Green

Projects: Dear Hank and John · DFTBA Records

Works: Hank Green bobblehead · John Green bobblehead · MinuteEarth

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · This Star Won't Go Out (charity)

Groups: Rhett and Link · Twenty One Pilots

Concepts: Antibiotic · cancer · cumulative culture · Racial segregation in the United States · same-sex marriage · smallpox · vaccine

Places: Mars · United States

Events: Thanksgiving · World War II

Only in the description or credits: human nature

Replies to

  • continues · Crime and Outrage — “you made a video about how we are apparently incapable of understanding how good the world is, comparatively.”

← Previous: Crime and Outrage · Next → John's Book Giving Guide for the Holidays!