Skip to content

When it All Seems Like Too Much

2018-12-04 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: Global development) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook, calendar ritual, fundraising ask, civic or action cta, self promotion

Taking John's Tuesday slot before the Project for Awesome, Hank says people lose hope about climate change because news favours bad news, advocates pitch the scariest version and we think in binaries; but there is only a spectrum of bad, and care mixed with hope, as in the P4A, is what drives good 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; Hank and John swap video days for P4A; the new IPCC report as hook

  • ★ Because John wants to make a Project for Awesome video this week (week of 3 December 2018), Hank takes John's Tuesday video and John takes Hank's Friday video. — 00:00:13 · John Green, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says the IPCC's just-released climate change report was full of bad news. — 00:00:20 · climate change

00:00:29 — Why people lose hope about climate change: bad-news focus, scariest-version pitching, binary thinking; the spectrum of bad

  • ★★★ People regularly ask Hank, who knows a fair bit about the situation we are putting ourselves into, whether he has any hope left; he finds the loss of hope terrible because he does not think you can do anything without it. (hedged) — 00:00:29 · hope, climate change
  • ★★ Hank thinks the hopelessness has several causes, the first being that news will focus on bad news, which the channel has discussed plenty. (hedged) — 00:00:40 · sensationalism
  • ★★ Hank's second cause: some people, which he understands, might hype it up a little; after doing this for so long with no one paying attention, they start to pitch the scariest version of the story, which is not a lie. (hedged) — 00:00:50
  • ★★★ Hank says the world is going to be worse: there will be climate refugees, and the global situation will probably destabilize somewhat as we deal with the problem. (hedged) — 00:01:04 · climate change
  • ★★ Hank, though himself desperate for people to pay attention, doesn't think scary pitching ultimately works: it might get attention without action. (hedged) — 00:01:15
  • ★★★ Hank's third cause: we are bad at non-binary thinking; very bad is not the apocalypse, and humanity has always lived somewhere between utopia and apocalypse. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Hank says there are many tipping points ahead, but there will always be a spectrum of bad, and our future will be somewhere on it. — 00:01:40 · climate change
  • ★★★ Hank's view of climate change, which he knows better than most big problems, gives him more hope for others: like crime, justice, racism or suffering, it has no binary fixed-or-broken state. — 00:01:50 · climate change, hope
  • ★★ Hank says there are billions of variables, and we all get to affect them as we move through life. — 00:02:08

  • ★★★ Hank says a recipe he has seen work for others and himself, the 'pie and ice cream of activism', is care mixed with hope: hopeful, caring people get him to act. — 00:02:14 · hope

    “the pie and ice cream of activism, is care mixed with hope”

00:02:26 — Care mixed with hope as the recipe for activism; P4A Indiegogo launch and perks

  • ★★ Hank says care comes easily to him, but at various times in his life he has lost his grip on hope. — 00:02:32 · hope

  • ★★★ Hank says we are not working toward a fixed state but toward a better place on the spectrum of bad: every bit of good work adds up to a better world. — 00:02:40

    “We are working toward a better place on the spectrum of bad.”

  • ★★ Hank says the P4A Indiegogo campaign has just launched, with digital and physical perks, exclusive podcasts and signed pieces of his manuscript with editing marks. — 00:02:54 · Project for Awesome, Indiegogo

00:03:09 — More perks, the P4A as hope and care, livestream, live punishment and P4A videos; sign-off

  • ★ Hank says he found ten episodes of HankGames and Games with Hank on old hard drives and uploaded them to the HankGames vault, and mentions another challenge coin to add to his collection. — 00:03:09 · HankGames, Games With Hank
  • ★★ Hank says the P4A is full of hope and care for him, and feels good because it does good both because of and in spite of the doom and gloom. — 00:03:20 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ Hank thinks almost all of humanity's great work has been done not out of despair but out of hope. (hedged) — 00:03:30 · hope
  • ★★ Hank invites viewers to join the P4A livestream, with games and great guests. — 00:03:39 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ Hank says he will do his punishment live during the livestream, record it and edit it for next week (week of 10 December 2018). — 00:03:44 · Punishment
  • ★★ Hank asks viewers to upload their P4A videos, pointing to resources in the description and projectforawesome.com. — 00:03:48 · Project for Awesome

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: climate change · hope · Project for Awesome

Also: false dilemma · Games With Hank · HankGames · Indiegogo · Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change · Punishment · refugee · sensationalism

← Previous: We just had our first interstellar visitor...and it's weird. · Next → BABIES! The 2018 Project for Awesome is here…