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Some Rough Advice for the "Real World"

2017-05-26 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:48 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life · mode: Advice & reviews

Addressing the class of 2017, Hank argues that not finding a job you love is normal: careers, diplomas and job interviews are recent cultural constructions, basing self-worth on them makes happiness hard, school was for learning, and the job everyone has is making themselves.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Graduates face an overwhelming freedom of paths; work is more about people and attitude; Hank's lonely post-graduation lab job

  • ★★ Hank thinks most graduates, like him at their age, have done what others told them their whole lives and now don't know what to do. (hedged) — 00:00:06
  • ★★ Hank jokes that freedom is awful: graduates face infinite paths (army, Peace Corps, clergy, grad, business or 'horoscope' school, side hustles, podcasts). (playful) — 00:00:13
  • ★★★ Hank says following your dreams disappoints because work has much more to do with the people you do it with and your own attitude than with what you do. — 00:00:30
  • ★★ Hank loved science and got a science job after graduating, but it was miserable because he was the only person in the lab; after six months it got lonely. — 00:00:39

00:00:58 — How dream jobs happen; most people are normal; careers are brand-new cultural constructions; self-worth and feeling valuable

  • ★★ Hank says it is easy to go through life without finding a saleable skill you enjoy; dream jobs happen when you do something you like until people will pay you for it. — 00:01:03
  • ★★ Hank advises those who like doing something with economic value to keep doing it: they are the lucky ones. — 00:01:17
  • ★★★ Hank tells those who haven't found such a thing that they are like most people: they are normal. — 00:01:24
  • ★★ Hank says humans evolved for a world so unlike today's that it is amazing any of us function at all, though humans are above all adaptable. — 00:01:32
  • ★★★ Hank says careers, job interviews, diplomas and jobs are not normal human things we are designed for but brand-new cultural constructions that didn't exist about 300 years ago. (hedged) — 00:01:46 · social construction
  • ★★★ Hank says society asks us to base self-worth on careers, which makes happiness hard; you don't need a world-changing, green, fulfilling job using your diploma, you need to feel valuable. — 00:02:09
  • ★★ Hank says the many constraints placed on what a valuable life looks like are way too much to expect from anyone, much less everyone. — 00:02:32

00:02:44 — School was for learning; no one changes the world alone; follow any path and make yourself

  • ★★★ Hank tells graduates they didn't go to school to learn how to get a job but to learn, and they did: they know more now. — 00:02:45 · education

  • ★★★ Hank asks graduates who may never know what they're doing to get up each morning knowing no one changes the world alone and no one doesn't change it at all. — 00:02:56

    “no one changes the world alone and no one doesn't change it at all”

  • ★★ Hank says we are all exceptional and none of us are, and we are all lost sometimes. — 00:03:03

  • ★★★ Hank advises following a path, any path, until you reach a place you don't like, and then changing direction. — 00:03:08
  • ★★★ Hank says the one thing you make every day, whatever you do, is yourself: that is your job, and you must do it well. — 00:03:15
  • ★★ Hank finds strength in knowing his own wandering is normal, kind of beautiful and nothing to stress about; not knowing where your path goes keeps it from being boring. — 00:03:24

00:03:39 — Sign-off and on-screen update of the PodCon guest list

  • ★ Hank shows the current list of people who will be at PodCon, as an update, and points to podcon.com. — 00:03:41

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank says he is sick of people feeling they have failed or don't matter because they don't hit every target society sets; no one does, and many goals are dumb. — video description
  • ★★ In the description Hank says society thrives on driven people, but he thinks we can make the world better without putting all this pressure on ourselves. (hedged) — video description
  • ★★ Hank says this video is basically the same as one Evelyn made, and recommends hers as way more funny and articulate. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: self-esteem

Also: education · evolutionary mismatch · loneliness · Peace Corps · PodCon · social construction

Only in the description or credits: Evelyn from the Internets

Also centred on self-esteem: What Boys Look For in Girls · You're Not Good Enough · 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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