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what's wrong with taking the back streets?

2020-08-18 · letter vlog · John · 3:55 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Everyday life (also: Personal life, Science & nature) · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore, heavy topic

Drawing circles on camera, John explains his long-term plan to draw about 170,000 of them: imperfect repetition gives him relief and attention, widens his narrow idea of productivity, and helps him grasp a large number; in comments he says the count is US COVID-19 deaths.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Calm repeated movements after a stressful week: the plan to draw 170,000 circles, imperfect repetition, Hiroyuki Doi, relief, OCD and doodling

  • ★★ After a stressful week, John says he has a long-term plan to draw 170,000 or so circles. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John likes drawing circles partly because it is impossible: his shaky hand and his pens mean he will never quite draw an actual circle. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ A pleasure of repetition is realizing even the smallest actions can't be repeated: each circle is non-circular in its own way, and he has signed his name half a million times, never the same twice. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ An Anthropocene Reviewed episode discusses the monumental circle drawings of Japanese artist Hiroyuki Doi, who began drawing after his brother's death because circles relieved his grief. — 00:00:29 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)
  • ★★ John finds repetitive actions offer relief if he chooses them and they aren't too taxing; it's easy to chalk that up to his obsessive-compulsive disorder. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Studies have found most people are more focused and retain more information when doodling than when not. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — John's narrow view of productivity and what he actually wants to produce

  • ★★★ John has focused his life on being productive with a very narrow definition: YouTube videos count but woods walks with his kids don't, email but not Twitter, good artists' art but not his. — 00:01:27 · YouTube, Twitter
  • ★★★ John rarely pauses to consider what he actually wants to produce: books, videos and podcasts, but also joy, deep connections with people he loves, and gratitude and hope alongside worry and fear. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ He wants to produce not-quite-circles, which expand his definition of productive and ask a particular kind of attention, like seeing how small changes such as switching pens have big impacts. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Trying to understand what 170,000 means: seconds as a scale for large numbers; circle 589; sign-off

  • ★★★ John is also trying to understand what 170,000 actually means, since humans have a notoriously hard time distinguishing among large numbers. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ A million seconds is around 11 days, a billion seconds just under 32 years, and a trillion seconds 31,710 years. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Ten billion seconds ago, Louis XIV was king of France. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Ten trillion seconds ago nobody was king of France because our species probably didn't exist yet. (hedged) — 00:03:24
  • ★★★ Comparisons help some, but large numbers stay hard to contextualize, so John is making the circles to learn how to count to 170,000; this is circle 589. — 00:03:24

In the description and comments

  • ★★★ In a comment John explains the number: at least 170,000 Americans had died of COVID-19 as of the day before. — creator comment · COVID-19 pandemic, United States
  • ★★★ In a comment John says the video ends on circle 589 because 589 people in the US died of COVID-19 the day before. — creator comment · COVID-19 pandemic, United States
  • ★★ In comments John updates that he has reached 3,400 circles and may livestream his progress; he counts in groups of 100, switching pens and making a tally mark each time. — creator comment
  • ★ In a comment John says he thinks he will then make an artwork with the death count since 8/16, then another, and so on until it is over. (speculative) — creator comment
  • ★ Told the title is bad, John says he also hates this title thing, but they are 85% through the nightmare and, as Hank said on Friday, they are not giving up now. (playful) — creator comment · Hank Green
  • ★★ In a comment John says there will be a big-ish announcement about The Anthropocene Reviewed next week (week of 24 August 2020), so there has never been a better time to start listening. — creator comment · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast)

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: productivity

Also: France · Hiroyuki Doi · joy · Louis XIV · obsessive-compulsive disorder · Twitter · YouTube

Only in the description or credits: All Star · COVID-19 pandemic · The Anthropocene Reviewed (podcast) · United States

Also centred on productivity: The Secret to my Productivity · how we spend our days · I have been playing a small trick on you. · The Productivity Lie

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