Skip to content

The Internet Needs to Change

2024-03-22 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:47 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, civic or action cta

Hank confesses he loves the algorithmically recommended internet, a slot machine for users and even more for creators, though its systems are designed to keep him on the site rather than make him happy; in response the brothers relaunch their decade-old Nerdfighteria newsletter as We're Here, a weekly human-curated recommendation.

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's love of the algorithmic internet as a slot machine, and why algorithms keep his attention though human curation is better

  • ★★ Hank says he loves the internet and its algorithms: he likes creating in collaboration with audiences and algorithms and loves it when they reward him with numbers. (playful) — 00:00:00 · recommender system
  • ★★ Hank admits his finger hovers over the tweet button knowing that pushing it will bring only misery, and then he pushes it. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Hank says the algorithmically recommended internet is a slot machine for users and even more so for creators: the rewards are potentially huge, the threats feel existential. — 00:00:29 · recommender system
  • ★★ Hank says all he really has is his reputation, yet every day he puts it on the line in ways he doesn't have to, and he loves it. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank loves the good parts of his work (Good Store, Project for Awesome, Crash Course, SciShow, Dear Hank and John) but also loves the slot machine. — 00:01:13 · Good Store, Project for Awesome, Crash Course, SciShow, Dear Hank and John
  • ★★★ Hank thinks there are real advantages to having largely given human curation away to extraordinarily intelligent machines. — 00:01:42 · recommender system
  • ★★ Hank says recommendation machines make more recommendations in a day than humanity did in its first 200,000 years. — 00:01:42 · recommender system
  • ★★★ Hank thinks we didn't realize what we were giving away, that there were bad parts, and that little of what he does online is good for him. — 00:01:42 · recommender system
  • ★★ Hank says people curate better than computers, as he finds reading human-curated material, but computers are better at keeping his attention. — 00:01:42 · recommender system
  • ★★★ Hank says he sticks with algorithms because they are not designed to make him happy or to be what he wants, but to keep him on the website as long as possible, which he calls similar goals. — 00:02:28 · recommender system, attention economy

00:02:51 — Relaunch of the Nerdfighteria newsletter as We're Here, its vibe, the sign-up ask and the sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says keeping users on a site and making them happy are similar goals that diverge, eventually in really big ways. (hedged) — 00:02:51 · attention economy
  • ★★★ Hank announces the Nerdfighteria newsletter, run for over a decade, is being relaunched as a weekly newsletter called We're Here recommending the best of the internet, related to the brothers or not. — 00:02:51 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank says the newsletter is not revolutionary but aims for an unusual vibe: a wistful consignment to being part of flawed but beautiful humanity, since every reader is here. — 00:03:21

  • ★★ Hank says it will be neither a good-news newsletter nor a daily-horrors one, but a 'you're in a bizarre world, might as well be in it' newsletter. — 00:03:45

    “It's more of a you're in a bizarre world, might as well be in it newsletter.”

  • ★★ Hank says it will share art and articles from people great on social media, so readers need not wade through what the algorithm offers to find them. — 00:03:45 · recommender system

  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to sign up via the description link (signing up twice does no harm), saying the brothers desperately want another way to communicate and make stuff. — 00:04:15
  • ★★ Hank says the first issue will go out sometime next week (week of 25 March 2024). — 00:04:36

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a channel comment, Hank again asks for recognition for having invented the format. (playful) — creator comment

Humor (significant)

  • Hank says he loves it when algorithms reward him with numbers. — 00:00:00

    “that i put inside of the hole inside of me that can fit an infinite number of numbers”

  • Hank's finger hovers over the tweet button, knowing it will deliver nothing but misery. — 00:00:29

    “and then I'll push it.”

  • Hank pictures posting online as wingsuit flying through the most treacherous terrain in the history of human communication. — 00:01:13

    “Hell yeah. Strap me in.”

  • Hank breaks off his newsletter pitch to greet a passer-by off camera. — 00:03:21

    “Maybe she'll sign up.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Hank and John email newsletter · recommender system

Also: Projects: Crash Course · Dear Hank and John · Good Store · Project for Awesome · SciShow · We're Here newsletter

Organizations: Twitter

Concepts: attention economy · operant conditioning

← Previous: Our $80,000,000 Bet · Next → I Own Danaher