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It's Time to Care About "Business"

2019-04-26 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:34 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Economics (also: Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Starting from the 'five jobs' Twitter hole, Hank reflects that work is a huge part of identity, admits he became CEO of four companies with no idea what he was doing, and argues everyone should understand business, the imaginary structure behind much of human value creation, plugging Crash Course's new soft-skills business series.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Twitter holes, the 'five jobs' hole and what service it provides

  • ★★ Hank explains what he calls Twitter holes, known from Delete This: chains of quote tweets in the same format that lead down to the progenitor tweet. — 00:00:00 · Delete This, Twitter hole, Twitter

    “a thing that I call Twitter Holes”

  • ★★ Hank says he helped popularize a Twitter hole, 'the five jobs': list five jobs you've had and ask 'what about you?' — 00:00:00 · Twitter hole, Twitter

  • ★★ Hank says successful Twitter things interest him because they let him ask what people find rewarding and what service is provided. — 00:00:30 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank says the five-jobs hole offers an excuse to talk about yourself, which everyone likes, and a chance to see what jobs others have had. — 00:00:30

00:00:58 — Work as identity; Hank's jobs and becoming a CEO without knowing what he was doing

  • ★★★ Hank doesn't love that paid labor is currently one of the main ways we define ourselves, but work is commonly a huge part of people's lives and identities. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says the hole offers a quick mini biography and a glimpse of what might have been, but does it poorly because it is the most simplified version possible. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Hank says that after starting out 'being dumb with a camcorder' in 2007 he became, over years, CEO of four different companies, not counting 2D Glasses, without really knowing how. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank lists past jobs: research assistant, quality control chemist, Walmart associate, production assistant. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ Hank's first office job was boss; he had no idea what he was doing, and each day chose among the audience, the financials and the team as his priority, based on nothing. — 00:01:57
  • ★★ Hank says he had no time for business school and doesn't know how applicable it would have been, but understanding business is still important. — 00:01:57

00:02:26 — Business as an imaginary structure everyone should understand; Crash Course's soft-skills series; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank argues it is important to understand business, a weird, imaginary structure that is nonetheless the foundation of much of how humans create value today. — 00:02:26

    “weird structure that is imaginary and yet also is like the foundation of a lot of how value gets created”

  • ★★★ Hank's office has spent months on a business Crash Course that isn't business school, on 'soft skills'; after working on its videos, staff walk into meetings asking why no one explained this to them. — 00:02:26 · Crash Course

  • ★★ The series covers building trust, emotional influence, communication, negotiation, job hunting and interviews, with lots more on the way. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Hank says this will be a bigger part of the average person's life than chemistry, though people should still learn chemistry. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Hank, a CEO, learns from every episode, which is a little embarrassing but something he is proud of: whatever your job, there is a lot to learn. — 00:02:55

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says all work is business, and even people isolated from its business parts need to understand them; separating business school from the rest of work is a problem. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says employees at every level should get the capacity and tools to understand the value of their work and their role in a business, and business should open up to people not set on becoming billionaires. — video description
  • ★★★ Acknowledging his bizarre and very privileged perspective, Hank wants more diversity in business: people who don't share the business-school worldview, which people of all genders, skin colors and backgrounds would help with a lot. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Twitter hole

Also: 2D Glasses · Avengers: Endgame · Crash Course · Delete This · Soft skills · Twitter · Walmart

Only in the description or credits: business

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