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I feel like I can't talk about this…

2024-09-06 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:59 · watch on YouTube

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

Hank says it feels easier to admit struggling than thriving; listing his many current projects (comedy gigs, Pizzamas, an Eons mammoth-figurine campaign, the Keats & Co. rebrand, the Learnathon), he argues that stress can be a destructive hurricane or a stretching breeze, that working this much only becomes a problem when several things break at once, and that he wants to feel how he actually feels.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Honesty about thriving, not just struggling; stress as hurricane or breeze

  • ★★★ Hank has found it easier to be honest about struggling than about thriving, the opposite of how things used to be. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank says many creators are honest about burnout and mental health, but simply working a lot and enjoying it feels countercultural in his spaces. — 00:00:00 · occupational burnout, mental disorder
  • ★★ Hank has worked in unhealthy, unsustainable and unenjoyable ways, but has never felt he was thriving with no stress in his life. — 00:00:29

  • ★★★ Hank says stress sometimes feels like a hurricane that could uproot him, other times like a breeze that stretches him and brings fresh air. — 00:00:29

    “stress feels like a breeze that stretches me and brings me fresh air”

  • ★★ When Hank talks about enjoying work, he expects to be told by other people, or by a voice in his head, that it is wrong, unsustainable or unhealthy. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Everything going on: comedy gigs, Youngstown, Project Lead the Way, Pizzamas, election work, the mammoth figurine campaign, Crash Course Religions, Keats & Co., SciShow, the Learnathon

  • ★★★ Hank says he cannot arrange his life to get only the breeze and never the hurricane, but he was born to sometimes enjoy a stronger breeze. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Next week (week of 9 September 2024) Hank opens for Rich Hall in Bozeman, a big deal for him, then does other things at the Last Best Comedy Fest; he invites viewers. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank will be in Youngstown, Ohio on the 26th, which he jokes is near Pittsburgh and Cleveland and not really near anywhere else. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ On October 5 both brothers will be in San Diego for Project Lead the Way, an education summit. — 00:01:27 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank announces that Pizzamas starts on the 23rd. — 00:01:27 · Pizzamas
  • ★★ Hank will film a new show in Los Angeles in October. — 00:01:27 · Los Angeles
  • ★★ The election takes up much of Hank's mind, and he has done campaign events with Montana candidates because it all matters, which he hates. — 00:01:27 · Montana
  • ★ A year ago Hank began following David Silva, who left the toy industry to make scientifically accurate dinosaur figures; Hank calls his work gorgeous. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Hank suggested the Eons team, Complexly's prehistoric life show made with PBS, collaborate with David on a figurine, then left it as not his job; now it may become real. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:56 · Eons, Complexly
  • ★★★ A Backerkit campaign is running to make beautiful woolly mammoth figures, and hopefully other proboscideans, with stretch goals Hank badly wants met. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Hank explains that it is a legit Kickstarter-style campaign: nothing gets made unless the goal is reached, since the molds are too expensive without enough sales; it is exciting and scary. — 00:02:26 · Kickstarter
  • ★★ Hank points viewers who might want a scientifically accurate woolly mammoth to the campaign. — 00:02:26
  • ★★ Crash Course Religions is coming out; Hank notes it is John's project, not his, but he thinks about it a lot. — 00:02:26 · Crash Course Religions, John Green
  • ★★★ The brothers are rebranding the Awesome Coffee Club as Keats & Co., a coffee and tea brand; Hank says the tea is great and reviews are coming in. — 00:02:26 · Awesome Coffee Club, Keats & Co.
  • ★★ Hank still loves hosting SciShow and Tangents and uploaded about three videos to Hank's channel this week (week of 2 September 2024), which seems a lot, but he is having fun. — 00:02:55 · SciShow, hankschannel
  • ★★★ The Complexly Learnathon ends today; Complexly is not launching a streaming service, but viewers can pretend and give $60 for a year of Complexly. — 00:02:55 · Complexly

00:03:24 — When stress becomes a problem; liking the storm; feeling how he actually feels; Learnathon ask

  • ★★ Hank says everyone at Complexly works hard on razor-thin margins, which is stressful, but at the moment a good stressful. — 00:03:24 · Complexly
  • ★★★ At 44, Hank knows his heavy workload is no problem while things go okay; it becomes one when two or three things go wrong at once and he can't fix them fast enough. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Then Hank regrets every decision he has ever made, which has happened a few times; knowing it could recur keeps him worrying an appropriate amount. (playful) — 00:03:53
  • ★★★ With limited life to live, Hank is working out what he likes: he enjoys being out in the storm a certain amount, until trees start falling, then going inside. — 00:03:53
  • ★★★ Hank doesn't want expectations of how he should feel to limit feeling how he actually feels: excited, curious, passionate and in community, even if sometimes pretty stressed. — 00:04:23

00:04:52 — Sign-off and a joke that the Learnathon will still take money over the weekend

  • ★ After signing off, Hank jokes that the Learnathon will probably keep taking donations through the weekend. (playful, hedged) — 00:04:52

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Complexly · psychological stress

Also: People: David Silva · Rich Hall

Projects: Awesome Coffee Club · Eons · hankschannel · Keats & Co. · Pizzamas · SciShow · SciShow Tangents

Works: Crash Course Religions

Organizations: BackerKit · Kickstarter · PBS · Project Lead the Way

Concepts: Mammoth · mental disorder · occupational burnout

Places: Bozeman, Montana · Cleveland · Los Angeles · Montana · Pittsburgh · San Diego · Youngstown, Ohio

Events: Last Best Comedy Fest

Also centred on psychological stress: Raw Onion, Twerking, and Speech Jam · Stress and Joy · Let's Talk About Stress! · Finding Respite in 2018 · Doing This Makes Me Happy, but Maybe it Doesn't' Seem that Way? · I've Not Been Doing Well

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