Skip to content

We Have Invented Something Marvelous

2021-11-05 · announcement · Hank · 3:22 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, fundraising ask, community lore

Hank pretends to have invented a 'foot sleeve', argues that the community's shared values decide what its projects look like, then reveals the second year of the charity Awesome Socks Club, open for nine days, with all profit going to maternal and child health in Sierra Leone.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Hank teases John about the greeting and 'invents' the foot sleeve

  • ★ Hank reminds John that 'Good morning, John' is how the videos start: John can't throw it in a couple of sentences into a video and not hear about it. (playful) — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank claims to have invented a stretchy cotton 'foot sleeve' worn between foot and shoe that cushions the foot, absorbs sweat and keeps feet warm at home. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Ideas brought into the world must mesh with the community's values; the hypothetical foot-sleeve subscription

  • ★★★ Hank says that when he or John bring an idea into the world they don't control its shape: the community's shared values and expectations are in charge, and ideas that mesh with them achieve amazing things. — 00:00:29 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says a community project can't be done the normal way: e.g. a monthly subscription with artist-designed items, open only in short windows to avoid waste, with all profit donated to health systems in poor communities. (playful) — 00:00:58 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:27 — Reveal: the Awesome Socks Club's second year, nine-day sign-up window, charity, and the switch to a perpetual subscription

  • ★★★ Dropping the conceit that he invented socks, Hank announces the second year of the Awesome Socks Club, a sock subscription for charity that the community energized and that has grown beyond it. — 00:01:27 · Awesome Socks Club, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says they project that the Awesome Socks Club will donate over $900,000 to charity this year (2021). — 00:01:27 · Awesome Socks Club
  • ★★★ Hank says the sock club's yearly opening starts today for only nine days: sign up via the description link for monthly socks by different independent artists, free shipping, cancel any time. — 00:01:56 · Awesome Socks Club
  • ★★ Hank says every dollar of the club's profit supports the community's work decreasing maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:01:56 · Awesome Socks Club, maternal death, child mortality, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Hank says last year's (2020) one-year subscription confused most members, who thought it perpetual, so from now on the Awesome Socks Club is perpetual, cancellable any time. — 00:02:26 · Awesome Socks Club
  • ★★ Hank tells early adopters they must renew to keep getting socks from January 2022, using the email he sent them. — 00:02:26 · Awesome Socks Club
  • ★ Hank says a gift subscription is available that automatically cancels after 12 months. — 00:02:26 · Awesome Socks Club

00:02:55 — The community did not invent socks but a new way to do socks; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says the community didn't invent socks but, with its values and excitement, a new way to do socks: expert-picked monthly surprises, compostable packaging and all profit for a better world, instead of an awkward Target aisle. (playful) — 00:02:55 · Nerdfighteria, nerdfighter

Humor (significant)

  • Hank scolds John for burying the 'Good morning' greeting a few sentences into his last video. — 00:00:00

    “You don't like throw that in a couple of sentences into the video and expect to not hear about it.”

  • Hank pitches a revolutionary new product that goes between your foot and your shoe. — 00:00:00

    “It's like a kind of foot sleeve.”

  • After a long pitch for the foot-sleeve subscription, Hank drops the act. — 00:01:27

    “So now it is time for me to abandon the conceit that I invented socks.”

  • Hank describes the ordinary way of buying socks. — 00:02:55

    “stand around awkwardly in the Target underwear section and end up being not that cool looking anyway”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Awesome Socks Club · Sock (“foot sleeve”)

Also: child mortality · Good morning greeting · maternal death · nerdfighter · Sierra Leone · Target Corporation

Also centred on Sock: Hank Reviews Everything

Replies to

  • corrects · enough — “You don't like throw that in a couple of sentences into the video and expect to not hear about it.”

← Previous: enough · Next → Hank Green's Million Dollar Ideas