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How John and I Talk About Ideas

2022-02-04 · list · Hank · 3:54 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: community lore

Hank shares the brothers' shorthand for judging ideas (a Walkman, you can't scale a person, Newman's Owning, a top 10, emperor of the world ideas) and argues their ideas are good mainly because Nerdfighteria's values give new ideas both energy and constraint.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — The brothers' many ideas, how they shoot each other's down, and their private shorthand

  • ★★ Hank says the brothers do have a lot of ideas, but most of his get shot down by John, who convinces him they are not good, and Hank does the same with John's. — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank says they talk about ideas so much they have developed a near-incomprehensible shorthand, which he shares hoping the frameworks are useful to others. (hedged) — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — The shorthand explained: Walkman, you can't scale a person, Newman's Owning, top 10

  • ★★★ Hank defines a Walkman: an idea that is technically difficult for them as non-experts and that someone else will definitely do anyway, so their effort would not speed it up. — 00:00:58 · Walkman (term)

    “A Walkman is an idea that has two components that make it a bad idea.”

  • ★★★ Hank explains 'you can't scale a person': an idea permanently reliant on one person is long-term unsustainable, not necessarily bad, since a person runs out of hours, years or desire. — 00:01:27 · you can't scale a person

    “you can't scale a person.”

  • ★★★ Hank explains Newman's Owning: an okay idea gets way better when all the profit goes to charity, making it more interesting to everyone involved and less like normal business. — 00:01:49 · Newman's Owning

  • ★★★ Hank defines a top 10 as any idea that would be successful but would not add much value to the world. — 00:02:18 · top 10
  • ★★ Hank says the term comes from a Vlogbrothers week of top 10 lists: the videos did about 10 times better than average but did not grow the community or teach anything. — 00:02:18 · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria, top 10
  • ★ Hank says Newman's Owning is a way to make a top 10 into a good idea. — 00:02:18 · Newman's Owning, top 10

00:02:48 — Emperor of the world ideas; why their ideas are good: each other and the community's activation energy and constraint; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank describes emperor of the world ideas, good only if everyone got out of the way and agreed: not really bad ideas, just fantasies; the phrase comes from Daniel Biss talking to John. — 00:02:48 · emperor of the world idea, Daniel Biss
  • ★★ Hank says part of why their ideas tend to be good is that the brothers interrogate each other's ideas and have gotten good at it. — 00:02:48
  • ★★★ The bigger part, Hank says, is a large group of passionate, supportive people with good values that gives new ideas activation energy but also a constraint: ideas must fit the community's values. — 00:03:17 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says the community's values keep them focused not on top tens but on valuable, interesting, new and weird things, and he is extremely proud of the results. — 00:03:17

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says there has never been a better guide than Nerdfighteria's values, and the list of things made or inspired together is very good stuff. — video description · Nerdfighteria

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: emperor of the world idea · Newman's Owning (“Newman's owning it”) · top 10 · Walkman (term) · you can't scale a person

Also: Activation energy · Complexly · Days Since Hank Green Last Started a New Thing · DFTBA Records · Walkman (product)

Only in the description or credits: Daniel Biss

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