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My Earthquake Story - (And Thoughts About Numbers)

2017-07-07 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:33 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Personal life, Science & nature, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay

From a minor 5.8 earthquake at his house and the 2010 Haiti quake, Hank argues that numbers like the Richter scale, AP scores or view counts tell something real but not everything: people are not their numbers, and what matters is what your 'shake' does and who you share it with.

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's house shakes in a 5.8 earthquake; he and Katherine run to the baby's room

  • ★★ A couple of hours after Hank went to bed two nights ago his house shook in an earthquake; it was not serious, and he thinks the biggest casualty was the pasta sauce. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank and Katherine still freaked out and ran to the baby's room, only to watch him sleep, since it was over by the time they got there. (playful) — 00:00:14 · Katherine Green, Orin Green
  • ★★ The earthquake was a 5.8 on the Richter scale, which feels like standing on a moving train: not nothing. — 00:00:25

00:00:35 — The Richter scale versus destruction: the 2010 Haiti earthquake and 20 stronger but less deadly quakes

  • ★★ The Richter scale tells how much the Earth is moving, but maybe not what we actually want to know. (hedged) — 00:00:35
  • ★★★ Hank says the 2010 magnitude 7 Haiti earthquake killed hundreds of thousands, while the 20 stronger earthquakes that year killed fewer than a thousand combined. — 00:00:44
  • ★★ The Haiti earthquake was so destructive because it was centred near several large population centres and, Haiti being so poor, badly built buildings collapsed. — 00:01:02
  • ★★ The number 7.0 tells you something real, but not everything. — 00:01:14

00:01:19 — AP scores and Crash Course: you're not your numbers; easy-to-measure things are poor surrogates for worth

  • ★★ As AP scores come back, Hank gets many tweets saying Crash Course helped; he thanks them, giving the students most of the credit. — 00:01:23 · Crash Course

  • ★★★ Hank says out loud that you're not your numbers. (hedged) — 00:01:36

    “you're not your numbers”

  • ★★★ We judge our worth and draw confidence from quantified things (AP scores, net worth, BMI, bench press) because they are easy to measure, not because they are good surrogates for our value. (hedged) — 00:01:50

  • ★★ More important qualities are hard to measure (communicating, drive, caring, thoughtfulness, willingness to take on hard things); we don't test for them and just hope tests capture them. — 00:02:11

00:02:34 — John's Civil Twilight got fewer views but gave viewers a different experience

  • ★★★ John's Civil Twilight, with a faceless thumbnail and a non-clickbait title, got far fewer views than the average Vlogbrothers video, but counting views misses viewers' very different experience. — 00:02:36 · John Green, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ The video made Hank think more than the average video and made him proud to be John's brother. — 00:02:56 · John Green

00:03:04 — Humans as seven billion earthquakes: what your shake does and who you shake it with; sign-off

  • ★★★ Defining others and ourselves by numbers, as if we were earthquakes, is bad; if humans are seven billion earthquakes, Hank wants to care less how big his shake is than what it does and who he shakes it with. — 00:03:04

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank calls followers, likes and views seductive surrogates for meaning, and says that without this kind, thoughtful community he would leave the internet. — video description · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says he and John stopped wanting to grow Vlogbrothers long ago and love it for what it is; he apologises when his other projects spill over onto the channel, which he wants always to be just two brothers making stuff together. — video description · Vlogbrothers, John Green

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: 2010 Haiti earthquake · earthquake at Hank's house (July 2017) · Richter magnitude scale · self-esteem

Also: Advanced Placement exams · Body mass index · Crash Course · Haiti · Katherine Green · Orin Green

Also centred on 2010 Haiti earthquake: How do you cross the Sad Gap?

Also centred on self-esteem: What Boys Look For in Girls · You're Not Good Enough · Some Rough Advice for the "Real World" · Looking for Alaska Movie (BUT BETTER) and YouTuber Things · What Matters · What Helped Through Depression

Replies to

  • continues · Civil Twilight — “John, you made a video this week”

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