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What are These Boys Doing??

2022-07-22 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Explaining why he and John run subscription companies (the Awesome Socks Club and the new Awesome Coffee Club) that give away all their profits, Hank says they now care more about impact than wealth and that the community builds things together, and hopes the coffee club grows beyond anyone knowing who made it.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Two subscriptions to two different products: things people want, like coffee and art socks

  • ★★ Hank says the brothers are up to something: two different subscriptions to two very different products. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Awesome Socks Club, Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★ People want and need many things: a delicious cup of coffee is a tremendous joy for many, Hank included, and art socks that others notice are a happy feeling. — 00:00:13

00:00:33 — Companies that give away all their profits; why: more interested in impact than wealth

  • ★★★ The brothers are trying to find out whether they can make things people really love and build companies that give away all their profits, so the money makes the world better rather than the owners' lives. — 00:00:33
  • ★★★ Asked why they work so hard on businesses they don't profit from, Hank used to say they have plenty; his refined answer is that they are more interested in impact than wealth, and he wouldn't work half as hard on the sock club just for money. — 00:01:10 · Awesome Socks Club
  • ★★ The same is true for John and the coffee, Hank says: without Partners In Health's work to excite them, they would not be as ambitious. — 00:01:40 · Partners In Health, Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★★★ What has excited the brothers for 15 years is not building a community to make a living but building a community, and communities can build things together. — 00:01:45 · Nerdfighteria

00:01:57 — Communities build things together: Crash Course as something Nerdfighteria built

  • ★★ Hank feels community pride in Crash Course because Complexly staff, the script writers, freelancers and Thought Cafe came together to make it. — 00:02:05 · Crash Course, Complexly
  • ★★★ Crash Course would never have got funding or its initial viewership without this community: it is something Nerdfighteria built, like many of their projects, which Hank sees as things 'we' did. — 00:02:20 · Crash Course, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ The community could have been somewhat proud of a for-profit sock club, as Hank is of many YouTubers' projects, such as Holo Taco and Dropout TV. — 00:02:37 · Awesome Socks Club

00:02:56 — Using the community's activation energy for charity coffee; hope it spreads beyond them; $100,000 donated

  • ★★★ The brothers are lucky to ask what the best and coolest use of this activation energy is: things like delicious, ethically sourced coffee that gives all its profit to charity. — 00:02:56 · Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★★ Hank does not think this is a small or even medium-sized idea, though he could be wrong. (hedged) — 00:03:05
  • ★★★ Hank thinks someday there may be Awesome Coffee Club subscribers who have no idea who Hank and John Green are. (hedged) — 00:03:10 · Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★★★ To Hank that is the best outcome: the community builds things that spread across the world doing good, with people unaware it made them. — 00:03:17 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ The coffee club has already donated $100,000 to Partners In Health, Hank thinks. (hedged) — 00:03:30 · Awesome Coffee Club, Partners In Health
  • ★ Every bag delivers two dozen delicious cups of coffee, Hank adds. (playful) — 00:03:35 · Awesome Coffee Club
  • ★★ Whether or not viewers want the coffee, Hank hopes they feel the same pride he does in the impact this community has had. — 00:03:40 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank congratulates John on the coffee club launch and notes viewers can still sign up at awesomecoffeeclub.com. — 00:03:50 · Awesome Coffee Club

00:03:54 — Sign-off and sign-up pointer

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank was reminded today that his 2011 James Webb Space Telescope video became a big deal internally for people working on the telescope, some of whom had started to doubt it would ever happen. — video description
  • ★★ After his video about decreasing suck and increasing awesome, some people on the project handed out 'I Decrease Suck' and 'I Increase Awesome' buttons, Hank writes: the community has impact far beyond its size. — video description · world suck
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank argues ambition and motivation matter, and leaving them only to people who want wealth selects for not the best group of people to have a lot of power. — creator comment
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank says the sock club is getting close to $2 million. — creator comment · Awesome Socks Club

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Awesome Coffee Club · Awesome Socks Club

Also: Activation energy · coffee · Crash Course · Dropout · Holo Taco · Partners In Health

Only in the description or credits: Complexly · James Webb Space Telescope · Thought Cafe · world suck

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