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i like it

2020-06-30 · letter vlog · John · 3:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Sports (also: Books & writing, Health) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, timely hook, community lore

Amid an exhausting week and his tendency toward negative filtering, John shares two things he liked: Hank's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, which he calls a sequel that improves on the original and a sophisticated analysis of what the internet does to us, and Liverpool's first league title in thirty years, which he watched alone in his basement.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — A two-star week and the cognitive distortion of negative filtering; the world contains multitudes

  • ★★ John says it has been a two-star week: nothing is really wrong aside from (gestures broadly), but he is exhausted on a few levels. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says he sometimes experiences the cognitive distortion of negative filtering, filtering out positive information and seeing only bad stuff. — 00:00:09
  • ★★ Like other cognitive distortions, negative filtering doesn't feel like one: only the negative seems true, the positive inaccurate or irrelevant. — 00:00:19
  • ★★ In fact, John says, the world is complex and contains multitudes even amid everything, so he will tell Hank two things from the week he really liked. — 00:00:31

00:00:41 — Rereading A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor: a sequel that improves on the original; release date and virtual tour; time folding in on itself

00:01:56 — James from England, Liverpool's 1990 and 2020 titles, watching alone in the basement, a friend who died, and the Pope John Paul II line

  • ★★ At 12 John was on his middle school soccer team; he was terrible and rarely played. — 00:01:59
  • ★★ James, a really good teammate from England, told them about English football, stadiums of singing fans, and that the best team was Liverpool; they believed him. — 00:02:07 · England
  • ★★ That year Liverpool won their 18th English league title, and they did not win another until four days ago. — 00:02:31
  • ★★ John only became a Liverpool fan later, when the Premier League came to American TV in the early 2000s. — 00:02:38
  • ★★ By then Liverpool were down on their luck, at one point close to bankruptcy. — 00:02:44
  • ★★ John often imagined winning the Premier League: at the Indianapolis pub where he watches with other Liverpool fans, or maybe live at Anfield. — 00:02:49 · Indianapolis
  • ★★★ Instead Liverpool won the league after a three-month pandemic break, and John watched alone in his basement, the game played in an eerily empty stadium. — 00:03:04 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ Could it have been better? Not really, John says: it was pretty great and felt magical. — 00:03:18
  • ★★ John thought about the long years since James's claim, the title slipping away in 2014 and coming up agonizingly short in 2009. — 00:03:22
  • ★★★ John thought of his friend who died a few months ago, who texted after every loss: thanks for making me a Liverpool fan, you monster. — 00:03:35
  • ★★★ John kept thinking of the old line often attributed, probably incorrectly, to Pope John Paul II: of all the unimportant things, football is the most important. (hedged) — 00:03:40

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says the 2020 title is Liverpool Football Club's first league title in thirty years. — video description
  • ★★ In a comment John says A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is available for preorder wherever books are sold, in the US supporting local bookstores via bookshop.org. — creator comment · A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor
  • ★ In a comment John says he has sponsored AFC Wimbledon since about 2012 or 2013 and follows them avidly, but has long been a Liverpool fan: a bit of divided loyalty. — creator comment · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★ In a comment John says another very common cognitive distortion, one he is intimately familiar with, is catastrophizing. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor · Liverpool FC

Also: People: James (person, mentioned from 2020) · Pope John Paul II

Works: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

Organizations: Premier League

Concepts: attention economy · cognitive distortion · dehumanization · negative filtering

Places: Anfield · England · Indianapolis

Events: COVID-19 pandemic

Only in the description or credits: AFC Wimbledon · All Star · Bookshop.org

Also centred on Liverpool FC: Walking the Red Carpet: Thoughts from Los Angeles · The Best Worst Thing · AFC Wimbledon v. Liverpool: Thoughts from the Greatest Game on Earth · A Weird and Beautiful Story · On Sharing the Walk · What to Love and How

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