Skip to content

Doing Somethings

2019-04-16 · letter vlog · John · 3:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay

After a night at a live Harry Potter and the Sacred Text recording, John reflects that doing nothing feels like a passive default rather than a choice, which leaves him vulnerable to misinformation (about medication, flu shots, philanthropy); passive choices are still choices, and he is always choosing which something to do.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — John attends a live recording of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and finally feels spring

  • ★★ John attended a live recording of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, one of his favorite podcasts, a lovely evening that left him feeling more hopeful about the human enterprise. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Driving home, John finally felt spring in Indianapolis and kept thinking of E.E. Cummings's poem 'Spring is like a perhaps hand'. — 00:00:00 · Indianapolis

00:00:29 — Doing nothing as a passive non-choice: Netflix, medication, flu shots, philanthropy, gardening and misinformation

  • ★★ On his usual Monday nights of doing nothing, John scrolls Netflix for about 20 minutes after the kids sleep, then watches something or reads. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John says doing nothing means not making an active choice: it feels like the natural default, while doing something feels like making a choice. — 00:00:29 · also in: Making your Nothings into Somethings
  • ★★ John takes medication for his mental illness every day; taking it feels like doing something, and not taking it feels like doing nothing. — 00:00:58 · mental disorder
  • ★★ John says the same holds for getting a flu shot, engaging in philanthropy or planting seeds in his garden: doing nothing feels like the default, not a choice. — 00:00:58 · vaccine
  • ★★ John says plenty of not very accurate sources will tell him his medication won't work, the flu shot is dangerous, philanthropy does no good or gardening is a waste of time. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says the flu shot is safe. — 00:01:27 · vaccine
  • ★★ John says he is definitely better off taking his medication. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says philanthropy can be an excellent way to improve people's lives. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ John says that because passive choices feel natural to him, he is vulnerable to misinformation telling him those choices are virtuous. — 00:01:56

  • ★★★ John says passive choices are also choices: not taking prescribed medication is a choice, and an unwise one; staying home to watch Netflix is a choice too. — 00:01:56

    “passive choices are also choices”

00:02:26 — 'Larry Langford, let's do something': choosing which something to do

  • ★★ John says most nights he needs to rest at home in metaphysical quiet, but he must see those times as choices rather than a default or natural setting. — 00:02:26

  • ★★ John says a Birmingham, Alabama mayoral candidate's slogan, 'Larry Langford, let's do something', became a catchphrase in his family. — 00:02:26

    “Larry Langford, let's do something.”

  • ★ John calls it a horrible campaign slogan: not something prudent or good, just something. (playful) — 00:02:26

  • ★★ John says the candidate went on to be convicted in a huge bribery scandal. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John says while we're here we'll do a lot of somethings; doing nothing is not a way out of the responsibilities and opportunities of personhood. — 00:02:55

  • ★★★ John says his days, whether playing board games with family or watching a podcast recording, go better when he remembers he is choosing not between something and nothing but which something to do. — 00:02:55 · also in: Making your Nothings into Somethings

    “I'm not choosing between doing something or doing nothing. I'm choosing which something to do.”

00:03:24 — Thanks to Hank for 12 years and sign-off

  • ★ John thanks Hank for doing this something with him for the last 12 years. — 00:03:24

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: decision-making

Also: People: E. E. Cummings · Larry Langford

Works: Harry Potter and the Sacred Text · Spring is like a perhaps hand

Organizations: Netflix

Concepts: board game · Charity (practice) · mental disorder · misinformation · vaccine

Places: Birmingham, Alabama · Indianapolis

Only in the description or credits: Partners In Health · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Also centred on decision-making: Making your Nothings into Somethings

Later videos replying to this one