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Doing Bad Things To Make Good Things Happen

2017-02-24 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Hank explains why he jumped off the 'Machiavellian train' he rode as a younger man (good people must do what bad people do to win): trust needs people not to be pawns, outcomes are uncertain and often unreached, and there is no final end, since every decision is an end in itself; he now discards ideas that require defying his values and believes tiny actions make humanity work.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Greeting; the empty frame of recent videos: his only tripod was busy on a Wizard School video

  • ★ Hank explains the empty spot in recent videos: his only tripod was busy on a Wizard School video; after ten years he still hasn't bought a second tripod. (playful) — 00:00:07 · Wizard School

00:00:15 — The 'Machiavellian train' Hank used to ride and why it appealed to him

  • ★★ Hank thinks it is important for the brothers to talk about the things on which they disagree with their old selves. (hedged) — 00:00:15
  • ★★★ Hank describes the 'Machiavellian train' he used to be on: the idea that good people must be willing to do everything bad people do to get a good outcome, or the bad people win. — 00:00:21
  • ★★ The idea appealed to Hank as a younger man partly because it excused acting against his values, but mostly because it fed his wish to believe he could manipulate people and the world toward a good outcome. (hedged) — 00:00:40
  • ★ Hank says he saw himself as the protagonist of books he liked: Ender Wiggin, Frank Chalmers, Paul Atreides. — 00:01:01
  • ★★★ As Hank has gained more power (what social media calls influence), he has grown much more wary of, even sort of afraid of, that Machiavellian perspective. (hedged) — 00:01:10

00:01:21 — Four reasons the train is BS: trust, uncertain outcomes, likely failure, no final end

  • ★★★ First reason: healthy societies rely on trust, and that trust can never exist if we all see each other as pawns. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ When Hank saw people as pawns to be moved, he trusted others less because he thought they saw him that way too, which was a bad feeling. — 00:01:34
  • ★★★ Second reason: you are never sure your goal will help; revolutions against oppression have sometimes made things worse and sometimes turned out well, so destroying everything on the way risks bad means for a bad outcome. — 00:01:48
  • ★★★ Third reason: there is a really high chance you never reach the desired outcome, so you may do bad things and then fail, which happens all the time. — 00:02:17
  • ★★★ Last reason: there is no final end goal; every decision in life is an end in itself, and if the whole world lived as if the ends justify the means, the means would be a terrifying end. — 00:02:29

00:02:47 — Jumping off: discarding ideas that defy his values, limitations as liberation, tiny actions

  • ★★★ Hank says he jumped off that train: he no longer counts an idea as good if it requires defying his values or ethics, however good the end or the money it could bring. — 00:02:47
  • ★★ Hank had to get okay with discarding ideas he couldn't carry out while living rightly, which was surprisingly hard because he had praised ideas above reality. (hedged) — 00:03:00
  • ★★★ Hank calls this a liberation, first because limitations are good for ideas: being able to do anything to reach a goal can be paralyzing. — 00:03:16
  • ★★★ Second, when he fails, as he and everyone will again and again, he will at least have done things he believed in along the way. — 00:03:26
  • ★★★ Hank has come to believe that millions of tiny, sometimes invisible actions, more than any huge accomplishment, are what really make humanity work. — 00:03:35

00:03:46 — Ten years' most important lesson, thanks to John; Memento mori, see you in Boston

  • ★★ Hank tells John this is one of the best, most helpful and most important lessons he learned in ten years of doing this with him and the community, and thanks him. — 00:03:46 · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says NerdCon: Nerdfighteria tickets will be available at the door this weekend for $60 for anyone who wants to come. — video description
  • ★★ In the description Hank acknowledges huge advantages that make it easier for him to live this way, but says he has seen many people do things they don't believe in for career, business or money. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says people who do things they don't believe in for career, business or money convince themselves of the good it will let them do, but in the end often seem quite sad. — video description
  • ★★★ Acknowledging it may not hold for everyone and is likelier for him as a rich white guy, Hank has found being kind, thoughtful and empathetic a fantastic way to create successful art and successful business. — video description · empathy
  • ★★★ Hank is tired of small business owners learning from Fortune 500 CEOs like Steve Jobs: 'Don't be Steve Jobs, he was amazing, but he was a dick'; treat humans like humans, because that's where the real work gets done. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: consequentialism

Also: Ender Wiggin · Frank Chalmers · Niccolò Machiavelli · Paul Atreides · revolution · role model · trust · Wizard School

Only in the description or credits: empathy · kindness · NerdCon: Nerdfighteria · small business · social privilege · Steve Jobs

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