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You're Not Good Enough

2016-11-25 · letter vlog · Nathan Zed · 3:47 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life · mode: Personal essay · tags: guest or collab, song or performance

Guest host Nathan Zed, filling in during Hank's paternity leave, says he always feels not good enough and avoids things he isn't amazing at; he has no answer but tries to just do things he loves, since a person is like a burrito: no single ingredient is the best, but together they make a pretty good one.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Nathan's heckling inner voice; list of things he is bad at; doctor sketch; Obama-doing-Kanye impression

  • ★ Nathan Zed: Nathan says he is not good at a lot of things: sports, pottery, juggling, and he would make a terrible doctor. (playful) — 00:00:18

00:01:07 — Feeling not good enough even at what he is good at; not trying unless amazing; hating being the least qualified; the art-class memory

  • ★★★ Nathan Zed: Nathan says even at the things he thinks he is good at, he always feels not good enough, with a tiny voice in his head questioning him. — 00:01:07
  • ★★★ Nathan Zed: Nathan says his problem is that if he is not amazing at something he asks what the point of doing it is, e.g. why sing when people can listen to Adele. — 00:01:24
  • ★★ Nathan Zed: Nathan says the only way to be amazing at something is to practise, but he hates being at the first level where he is bad and feeling the most unqualified person in the room. — 00:01:41
  • ★★ Nathan Zed: Nathan recalls a kid in art class turning round while he drew a giraffe; the taunting he imagined was probably in his head, and the kid probably said it looked pretty good. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:57

00:02:33 — No answer, but just do things you love; 'you miss 100% of the shots'; life as a burrito; the inner voice is gone

  • ★★ Nathan Zed: Nathan says he has no answer to the problem of not feeling good enough; it is something he still goes through every day. — 00:02:33
  • ★★★ Nathan Zed: Nathan says what he is trying now is just doing things he loves, regardless of how good he is at them, and not caring. — 00:02:39
  • ★ Nathan Zed: Nathan cites the saying 'You miss 100% of the shots you don't take' (basketball, he clarifies, not alcohol). (playful) — 00:02:44 · You miss 100% of the shots you don't take

  • ★★★ Nathan Zed: Nathan likens a life to a burrito: you may not have the best chicken or sour cream, but rolled together your ingredients make a pretty good burrito, i.e. person. (playful) — 00:03:05

    “roll them all together to make you, and you got a pretty good burrito”

00:03:34 — Sign-off: follow Nathan on YouTube and Twitter; his shirt

  • ★ Nathan Zed: Nathan invites viewers to follow him on YouTube and Twitter for more food-based inspirational metaphors. (playful) — 00:03:34

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Nathan Zed fills in for Hank while he is on paternity leave, to discuss the taunt 'you're not good enough'. — video description · Hank Green

Humor (significant)

  • Nathan's low-self-esteem alter ego heckles him as he tries to start the video — 00:00:14

    “You look like- you look like Drake's ugly cousin, Derek.”

  • To show he'd be a terrible doctor, Nathan plays a doctor who insults the patient's relative and smell while delivering bad news — 00:00:52

    “-oh, never mind, she's dead.”

  • Nathan does an impression of Obama doing a bad Kanye impression, calling for Kim — 00:01:05

    “No, Michelle, jus- there's no Kim, it was just the video.”

  • Told his drawing looks good, small Nathan spirals into suspicion that the kid is lying and taunting him — 00:02:31

    “I- I- I have to kill him before he kills me.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Nathan Zed · perfectionism · self-esteem

Also: People: Adele · Barack Obama · Drake · Kanye West · Kim Kardashian · Michelle Obama · Shawn Mendes

Works: Café Terrace at Night · Courage the Cowardly Dog

Characters: Crazy Frog

Memes: You miss 100% of the shots you don't take

Only in the description or credits: Vincent van Gogh

Also centred on perfectionism: The Secret to my Productivity

Also centred on self-esteem: What Boys Look For in Girls · Some Rough Advice for the "Real World" · My Earthquake Story - (And Thoughts About Numbers) · Looking for Alaska Movie (BUT BETTER) and YouTuber Things · What Matters · What Helped Through Depression

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