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Remembering What's Special

2021-08-06 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:32 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore

Hank says the urge to make videos about his frustrations is selfish and unhelpful, and, reminded this week of what is special about Nerdfighteria, argues the community's foundation is shared enjoyment and accomplishment: focusing on what we can do rather than on what annoys us.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Why making videos about his current frustrations is a bad impulse; this week's reminder of what is remarkable about the community

  • ★★★ Hank is often tempted to make a video about whatever frustrates him most at the moment, and calls that a bad impulse. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Griping is selfish, Hank says, because it is about his own gripes rather than what is most broken in the world, and not impactful, because he would be griping to people who agree with him. — 00:00:29 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★ Few Nerdfighters disagree with Hank about vaccines; he jokes that Nerdfighteria is the most vaccinated state in America. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Nerdfighteria, vaccine, United States
  • ★★ Hank says Esther Day this week (week of 2 August 2021), and all the lovely things that happened around it, reminded him what is so remarkable about this community, an even more important reason not to make gripe videos. — 00:00:48 · Nerdfighteria, Esther Day

00:00:58 — Nerdfighteria's projects: Read It First went nowhere; Crash Course, DFTBA Records and the Awesome Socks Club now reach far beyond it

  • ★★ Hank calls Nerdfighteria an extremely productive place that has made really amazing things together, though some projects have gone nowhere. — 00:00:58 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank recalls wanting to start ReadIt1st, urging people to read the book before the film or show; community members asked why he wanted to control how people enjoy things, and after pushing back he saw it ran counter to the vibe. — 00:00:58 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ The projects that vibed include Crash Course, now huge; DFTBA Records, which helped creators make a living; and the Awesome Socks Club, which has raised over $600,000 for Partners In Health. — 00:01:27 · Crash Course, DFTBA Records, Awesome Socks Club, Partners In Health
  • ★★ Hank says those projects are no longer just Nerdfighter projects: they have impacts far outside the community, because of it. — 00:01:27 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says Crash Course has four times more subscribers than Vlogbrothers and reaches far more people. — 00:01:27 · Crash Course, Vlogbrothers

00:01:56 — Vlogbrothers as the core; not trying to be perfect; rants versus dad jokes; a community built on enjoyment and on what we can do

  • ★★★ Crash Course is by any measure a bigger deal than Vlogbrothers, but not to Hank: Vlogbrothers is the core of what they do, and without it Crash Course would not exist. — 00:01:56 · Crash Course, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank admits this is weird: they didn't know what they were doing at the start and still kind of don't, and they are not trying to be perfect, an idea that makes him nauseated. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ The community tries to enjoy things, learn and do positive, impactful things together; Hank sees great value in a constructive community with shared values, which feels uncommon these days. — 00:02:26 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ One of Hank's most successful videos was his 26 rants video, where he yells about stuff, but he never made another, not because nothing annoys him. — 00:02:26
    • a number in question (slip of the tongue): "26" — check against the recording (17 (a second rant video, with 15 rants, followed in 2015))
  • ★★ Instead Hank made a bunch of dad joke videos and now opens every Dear Hank and John with a dad joke, because that is the vibe. — 00:02:55 · Dear Hank and John
  • ★★★ Hank thinks it is very important to belong to groups based on common enjoyment, appreciation and mutual accomplishment, and is glad to be part of some, most importantly this one. — 00:02:55 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ It is never going to be perfect, but one foundation of the community is to focus not on what frustrates or disempowers us but on what we can do with what we have. — 00:02:55 · Nerdfighteria

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank calls it preposterous that this is a 'YouTube channel', a thing with no name, and says focusing on enjoyment rather than frustrations makes the community better at some things than others. — video description · YouTube, Nerdfighteria

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Projects: Awesome Socks Club · Crash Course · Dear Hank and John · DFTBA Records · ReadIt1st

Organizations: Partners In Health · Twitter

Rituals: Esther Day

Concepts: dad joke · perfectionism · vaccine

Places: United States

Only in the description or credits: YouTube

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