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What I learned from the weirdest day of my life

2024-10-02 · letter vlog · Hank · 5:39 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, community lore

Replying to John's video on fame, Hank tells how his 2008 deal to sell EcoGeek to Scientific American was paused by the financial crisis and argues that dreams are tools to drop when they cause problems: success is a string of solved problems for yourself and others, which answers 'what's the point'; he links this to his worry about attention-hijacking algorithms and to the Book of Good Times.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — False summits: reply to John's video; reaching a summit and asking what the point was

  • ★★ Using the false summit of hiking, Hank suggests John may be the kind who reaches a summit and asks what the point was, while he may be the kind who sees it wasn't the real summit. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · John Green

00:00:29 — The weirdest day: 2008 New York, first Nerdfighter gathering, the EcoGeek deal with Scientific American paused by the crash; Vlogbrothers instead

  • ★★★ On one of the weirdest days of his life, in New York in 2008, just after his first Nerdfighter gathering and wearing a fan-made Nerdfighteria shirt under his suit, Hank made a deal to sell EcoGeek to Scientific American for money and a job. — 00:00:29 · New York City, Nerdfighteria, EcoGeek
  • ★ The same day, on crowded Madison Avenue, Hank ran into his high school ex-girlfriend from Orlando. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ When Lehman Brothers collapsed and the economy crashed in September 2008, Scientific American's owner paused all deals indefinitely; Hank jokes that the deal is still on pause. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says he and John climbed a lot on YouTube: neither reached the peak, but they got high enough for a nice view. — 00:01:27 · John Green, YouTube
  • ★★ By 2009 Vlogbrothers was becoming Hank's full-time job, so he had no reason to mourn the lost opportunity and never thought of it as a false summit. — 00:01:27 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank asks what makes something look like a summit: social status, money, heroes' stories, family expectations, freedom from worry, or broader abilities and opportunities. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — The washer and dryer: problem solving rather than dreaming; dreams as disposable tools; success as solved problems

  • ★★★ Hank says something sets some of these goals apart, which John hit on at the end of his video: something that answers the question of what exactly the point is. — 00:01:56 · John Green, meaning of life
  • ★★ In 2008, when the downstairs neighbor moved out, Hank and his household asked to move into that apartment because it had a washer and dryer; going to their laundromat, Sparkle Temptations, despite its soft serve and hot dogs, was a problem. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Hank didn't dream of a washer and dryer or see it as the point of life; he just didn't want to go to the laundromat: he was problem solving, not dreaming. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Hank thinks getting stuck on fulfilling your dreams can be harmful: you probably won't get there and will be unsatisfied, and if you do, you may not know what the point was. — 00:02:26

  • ★★★ Hank thinks dreams are a tool to be abandoned the moment they start causing problems, and says he no longer has any loyalty to his dreams. — 00:02:55

    “dreams are a tool that should be abandoned the moment they start to cause problems”

  • ★★★ Hank tells anyone who needs to hear it that they have no obligations to their former selves, who know less and no longer exist. — 00:02:55

    “you have no obligations to your former selves”

  • ★★★ Hank's answer to what success is if not achieving dreams: life is a string of summits that are simply solutions to problems, for himself and for others, so there is always an answer to what the point is. — 00:03:24

  • ★★ Hank adds that the laundromat's staff were also solving a problem for him, with hot dogs and soft serve to make laundry suck less. (playful) — 00:03:24

00:03:53 — Hank's worry that internet work and brain-hijacking algorithms create problems

  • ★★ Hank says that if he had wasted the time saved from the laundromat scrolling TikTok, it wouldn't have solved much of a problem for himself. — 00:03:53 · TikTok
  • ★★★ Hank worries that his work on the internet solves problems for some people but also creates problems for others. (hedged) — 00:03:53 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank thinks the time we spend at the mercy of brain-hijacking algorithms working with talented, ambitious humans is a huge problem, and he is spending more time imagining solutions. — 00:03:53 · recommender system

00:04:22 — The Book of Good Times as a tool to engage with yourself; five-copy Kickstarter options, not guaranteed for Christmas; dreams as one tool among others

  • ★★ That is one reason Hank got excited about the Book of Good Times: a simple, low-barrier way to engage more with yourself, a tool doing the opposite of what tries to keep him from himself. — 00:04:22
  • ★★★ Because many people wanted multiple copies, Hank made it possible on the Kickstarter to get five paperbacks, five hardcovers, or a bundle with one of each. — 00:04:52 · Kickstarter
  • ★★ Hank does not think any of these multi-copy options can be guaranteed for Christmas, and apologizes. (hedged) — 00:04:52 · Christmas
  • ★★★ Hank says a dream is just one tool to drive yourself toward having tools for the world's problems; another way is simply to focus on solving problems. — 00:04:52

00:05:21 — Helping solve problems is the point; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank concludes that as long as you help solve problems for yourself and others, you never have to ask what the point is, because that is the point. — 00:05:21 · meaning of life

    “you never have to ask, what's the point? Because that's the point.”

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says Hank was asked how he knows when he has succeeded if he no longer puts much stock in dreams, and that this video is his answer. — video description
  • ★★ The description says Hank doesn't think success actually exists, but helping definitely does. — video description
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank says dreams are one of many sources of motivation and not the best one; curiosity is better. — creator comment · curiosity
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank clarifies that there are other good motivations besides solving problems, such as artists chasing a muse or trying to impress peers. — creator comment
  • ★ In a channel comment Hank calls video games problem factories that present problem after problem to solve. (playful) — creator comment
  • ★★ In a channel comment Hank says he once gave a whole talk on having no obligations to your former selves, findable by searching his name and XOXO. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: meaning of life

Also: Projects: EcoGeek

Works: The Book of Good Times

Organizations: Kickstarter · Lehman Brothers · Scientific American · TikTok · YouTube

Concepts: recommender system

Places: Madison Avenue · New York City · Orlando, Florida

Events: 2007–2008 financial crisis · Christmas

Only in the description or credits: curiosity · XOXO Festival

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