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A Midlife Crisis

2024-05-28 · letter vlog · John · 4:39 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Projects) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, heavy topic

John says that at 46, statistically more than halfway home, he is having a smidge of an early-late life crisis: torn between Complexly, Good Store, Nerdfighteria, fighting tuberculosis and writing, his deepest passion, he must prioritize but doesn't know how. He closes with the 2024 Crash Course coin.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Physical therapy for back pain and John's 'halfway home' age joke

  • ★ At physical therapy for his chronic back pain, John told his physical therapist he was 46, 'halfway home', his standard joke when asked his age. (playful) — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — A smidge of an early-late life crisis: Hank's cancer, aging, big choices and the need to prioritize

  • ★★★ John says that for the last year or so, being statistically more than halfway home, he has had not a smidge of a midlife crisis but a smidge of an early-late life crisis. — 00:00:29

    “a smidge of an early-late life crisis”

  • ★★ John says his little brother getting cancer made him consider his life and work in an appropriately finite context. — 00:00:29 · Hank Green, cancer

  • ★★ John says his kids and his body are getting older and he has reached a strange inflection point in his life with big choices to make. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John says he is unbelievably privileged even to have such a crisis: it means he has choices, or perceives he does, and has been around on Earth a while. — 00:00:58 · Earth
  • ★★★ John says it has been hard to know how to prioritize what he wants in life, and prioritizing feels increasingly important because he cannot do it all. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says he is increasingly aware of the wildness and preciousness of what Mary Oliver called one's wild and precious life. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — The competing commitments: Complexly, DFTBA and Good Store, Nerdfighteria, tuberculosis work, and writing

  • ★★ John says over 70 people work full-time for Complexly and over 50 for DFTBA.com or Good Store. — 00:01:27 · Complexly, DFTBA Records, Good Store
  • ★★ John says almost everything in those companies happens without him and Hank, but they still need them a lot. — 00:01:27 · Complexly, DFTBA Records, Good Store
  • ★★ John, proud of what the companies do, says Crash Course has reached hundreds of millions of learners. — 00:01:27 · Crash Course
  • ★★ John says Good Store has raised over $7.5 million to reduce maternal and child mortality in Sierra Leone. — 00:01:27 · Good Store, maternal death, child mortality, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ John calls Nerdfighteria the most important part of his professional life; it has grown around hubs on YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Twitter and elsewhere. — 00:01:56 · Nerdfighteria, Reddit, Twitter
  • ★★★ John says making these videos for 18 years and posting in Nerdfighter spaces is super important to him: it fosters important connections between people, and they do amazing things together. — 00:01:56 · Nerdfighteria, nerdfighter
  • ★★ John says tuberculosis has unnecessarily killed over a hundred thousand people this month (May 2024). — 00:01:56 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says he is very engaged, publicly and privately, in lowering barriers to TB treatment and diagnostics and in increasing awareness of and investment in fighting tuberculosis. — 00:02:26 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says he is writing a book about the history and presence of tuberculosis, which will come out next year (2025). — 00:02:26 · Everything Is Tuberculosis, tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says writing is his greatest, deepest professional passion and where he feels the deepest fulfillment, but it has become a smaller and smaller part of his professional life. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John says he published three books between 2005 and 2008. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ John says that since 2008 he has published only three more books, not for lack of ideas but for lack of time. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ John says his other work feels extremely urgent because it involves many people's livelihoods and, with tuberculosis and maternal and infant mortality, many people's lives. — 00:02:55 · tuberculosis, maternal death, child mortality
  • ★★★ John says these choices aren't binary, since some things can be dialed up and others down, but you still have to choose and prioritize, especially once aware that time is limited. — 00:02:55

00:03:24 — Finite time, no answer yet on priorities; a video whose point is not knowing the point

  • ★★★ Entering the second half of his life, John constantly asks what his priorities will be, and says he has no answer, hence a smidge of a crisis. (unsure) — 00:03:24
  • ★★ John says the channel usually constructs videos so they have a point, but the point of this one is that right now he doesn't know the point. (playful) — 00:03:24 · Vlogbrothers

00:04:02 — The 2024 Crash Course coin, available for one week

  • ★★ John announces the Crash Course coin, on sale from today for one week only at CrashCourseCoin.com; buyers sponsor 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000 Crash Course learners and help keep it free. — 00:04:02 · Crash Course coin, Crash Course
  • ★★ John says upcoming Crash Course videos, from biology to art history to world religions, are possible only because of supporters through the coin and Patreon. — 00:04:02 · Crash Course, Crash Course coin
  • ★★ John asks viewers to check out the Crash Course coin via the doobly-doo at crashcoursecoin.com. — 00:04:31 · Crash Course coin, doobly-doo, Crash Course

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says John isn't sure how to square the benefit of reading a book with the benefit of giving birth in a safe, well-supported environment. (unsure) — video description · maternal death

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: midlife crisis

Also: People: Mary Oliver

Projects: Complexly · Crash Course · DFTBA Records · Good Store

Works: Crash Course coin · Everything Is Tuberculosis

Organizations: Discord · Patreon · Reddit · Twitter

Terms: doobly-doo · nerdfighter

Concepts: back pain · cancer · child mortality · maternal death · Middle age · tuberculosis

Places: Earth · Sierra Leone

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 4 videos, 2024-05-28 – 2024-07-09.