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The Most Interesting Thing I've Ever Done

2016-12-30 · letter vlog · Hank · 6:34 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore, punishment or challenge, self promotion

Two days before vlogbrothers turns ten, Hank says that of everything he has done, he is proudest of the community: as traditional community structures give way to individualism, Nerdfighteria, led by its members more than by the brothers, is a rare model for building community in an internet-based, hyper-individualized 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 — Vlogbrothers' tenth anniversary in two days; Hank lists what he has done in those ten years

  • ★★★ Hank says two days from now (1 January 2017) will be the tenth anniversary of the first vlogbrothers video being uploaded to YouTube. — 00:00:00 · Vlogbrothers, YouTube
  • ★ Hank notes that people who watched that first video as eleven-year-olds can now legally drink. (playful) — 00:00:05
  • ★★ Hank lists the dream-like things of his ten years: friends, touring in a rock band, Carnegie Hall, a first home, creating VidCon, SciShow and Crash Course, a bobblehead, 2D glasses, interviewing the president. — 00:00:09 · VidCon, SciShow, Crash Course, Barack Obama

00:00:27 — The community is what he is proudest of: individualism, lost community structures, leading by following, Nerdfighteria as a model

  • ★★★ Of everything done in ten years, Hank says he is proudest of this community, and though that sounds hokey, he will explain. — 00:00:27 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says we are in a time of cultural upheaval; probably true for everyone who has ever lived, but it seems particularly strong now. (hedged) — 00:00:35
  • ★★ Hank says the internet will have an unknowable effect on human culture, which he thinks will be huge and both positive and negative. (hedged) — 00:00:43
  • ★★★ Hank says what occupies his mind, long predating the internet, is the disappearance of traditional community structures, replaced so far by little but die-hard individualism. — 00:00:51
  • ★★★ Hank says individualism brings good things but has also resulted in an explosion of distrust among people and of cynicism, especially in young people. (hedged) — 00:01:05
  • ★★★ Hank dislikes the idea that you can only put faith in yourself: it isn't true, and it leaves us nowhere in the moments when we don't like ourselves much. — 00:01:15
  • ★★ Hank says those moments might be getting more common as we see people online with perfect lives, pretty faces, giant travel budgets and many followers. (hedged) — 00:01:25
  • ★★ Hank doesn't want individualism gone, but says it is so new and pervasive that few structures help it exist without destroying society, admitting this rests on little research. (hedged) — 00:01:34
  • ★★★ Hank says it is not controversial to say we need new community structures. — 00:01:50

  • ★★★ Many say John and Hank lead a community, which is true in many ways, but Hank believes he is more a follower of this community than its leader. — 00:01:54 · John Green, Nerdfighteria

    “more than being a leader of this community, I am a follower of it”

  • ★★ For ten years they tried to build a place to be comfortable and enthusiastic in a weird moment, not by charging at a target: they didn't know what they were doing. — 00:02:04

  • ★★ Hank says they choose what to do from viewers' comments, such as 'this was my favorite video ever' or 'this really helped me'; he is being led through the process. — 00:02:22
  • ★★★ By wanting to do this and listening, Hank says, they created a community giving joy, connection, value and meaning to many, unlike any previous kind of community. — 00:02:34 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank adds that individualism is great and needed, and power should go to individuals, but we can't discard community. — 00:02:52
  • ★★★ Hank says striking the balance between individualism and community is a huge challenge to face now, since big problems can't be met by leaderless collectives without cohesive community. — 00:03:02
  • ★★★ Hank says we need to figure out how to be both leaders and followers, both ourselves and part of something bigger; it is hard and no model exists. — 00:03:18
  • ★★★ Hank says this is why Nerdfighteria is the most interesting thing he has ever been part of: it is a model for that, tested over ten years. — 00:03:32 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says people elsewhere have figured these things out too and also lead the community, from Mark Twain to Vi Hart, Michelle Obama to Ze Frank, Reinhold Niebuhr to Nathan Zed. — 00:03:46 · Barack Obama
  • ★★ Hank thinks we need to find the tools for building such community, and quickly. (hedged) — 00:04:00
  • ★★ Beneath the newsworthy achievements, Hank says, lies an amorphous community whose size, interest and maybe importance no one understands. (hedged) — 00:04:14 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Hank says Nerdfighteria is his proudest achievement not as a slogan or cheerleading but because it is a rare model for building community in an internet-based, hyper-individualized world. — 00:04:27 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank thanks everybody who has watched and participated over the last ten years for being his leader. — 00:05:03 · Nerdfighteria

00:05:16 — Over four minutes: NerdCon: Nerdfighteria in Boston, February 25-26, and a punishment to be performed there live

  • ★★ Hank admits the video is longer than four minutes; he hasn't made many overtime videos but couldn't help it this time. (playful) — 00:05:16 · Four-minute rule
  • ★★★ Hank invites as many people as can to NerdCon: Nerdfighteria in Boston, February 25-26, the community's first central gathering, as real-world meeting is an important part of community. — 00:05:27 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Hank decides to be punished for this too-long video in front of people at NerdCon: Nerdfighteria; it will be recorded and uploaded, and he doesn't know what it will be yet. — 00:06:01 · Punishment, Four-minute rule

In the description and comments

  • ★ The description says Hank said 'I' a lot about his ten years but had a lot of help doing those things, most of all from John. — video description · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank finds it scary when the community's focus seems to be him or John as people rather than values and goals: he wants to be a doorway into something bigger, not stuck in the doorway, and wants viewers here for the message, not for him. — video description · John Green, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Hank says he can be distracted from vlogbrothers by the new projects the community made possible, which have whole teams while vlogbrothers is still just him and John, and he doesn't want to lose its work of finding new ways for cohesive, constructive community to exist. (hedged) — video description · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank thanks viewers for an amazing ten years and says how lucky he is. — video description · Nerdfighteria

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: individualism · online community

Also: People: Barack Obama · Mark Twain · Michelle Obama · Nathan Zed · Reinhold Niebuhr · Vi Hart · Ze Frank

Projects: Crash Course · NerdCon: Nerdfighteria · SciShow · VidCon

Works: 2D Glasses · Hank Green bobblehead

Organizations: YouTube

Groups: Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers

Rituals: Four-minute rule · Punishment

Concepts: cynicism

Places: Boston · Carnegie Hall

Also centred on individualism: How We Teach: Individualist Stories

Also centred on online community: Happy Birthday John Green! · Ending the Age of Outrage (at least in ourselves, if not in the world) · YouTube's New Thing (and a New Thing of Our Own) · It's Like Shark Tank, but for Charity

Later videos replying to this one