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Working Through a Crisis with My Brother

2024-11-01 · collab / interview · Hank, John · 9:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Personal life (also: Projects, Philosophy & meaning, Books & writing) · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: guest or collab, heavy topic, timely hook, self promotion, civic or action cta

Together on camera days before the 2024 US election, Hank tells John he feels anxious and lost as generative AI reshapes media; John says this is also Hank grappling with mortality after cancer, urges building self-worth from within rather than from outside validation, and says going deep on one cause like tuberculosis helps; they also plug P4A art, creator grants and John's book signing.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Greeting and Hank's list of news: P4A art, Vlogbrothers grants, John in the New York Times, banned author, astronaut interview

  • ★★ Hank says they are collecting Nerdfighter art for the Project for Awesome; the description links the submission form. — 00:00:00 · Project for Awesome, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ Hank asks for applications for the Vlogbrothers sponsorship: half of their money helps newer educational creators on any internet platform. — 00:00:29 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank notes John was in the New York Times, in an article titled Can John Green Make You Care About Tuberculosis? — 00:00:29 · The New York Times
  • ★ John says it was cool to see the word nerdfighters in the article's subhead in the New York Times. — 00:00:29 · nerdfighter, The New York Times
  • ★★ John says he hopes he can make people care about tuberculosis; Hank adds that that is the goal. (hedged) — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis
  • ★ Hank says John may be the second most banned author in America. (hedged) — 00:00:58 · John Green
  • ★ Hank interviewed an astronaut for Study Hall and learned, among much else, that he does not work very hard by comparison. (playful) — 00:00:58 · Study Hall

00:01:27 — Hank's anxiety about the election, media and generative AI; John's diagnosis: mortality after cancer and reliance on outside validation

  • ★★★ With the election six days away, Hank says it is very hard to think about anything else, and also very hard to think about it. — 00:01:27 · United States presidential election
  • ★★ Hank says Katherine told him she can't fix the election, so she will focus on what she is going to do. — 00:01:27 · Katherine Green
  • ★★ Hank says he has a hard time thinking he doesn't matter to the election and that maybe he can do something; John replies that he can't. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ John says he wants people to vote; Hank says he has been doing his best on that front. — 00:01:52 · United States presidential election
  • ★★★ John says that, beyond a stressful moment, Hank is experiencing intense, pathological, clinical anxiety for the first time in his life. — 00:01:52 · Hank Green
  • ★★ Hank says there might be a pathological component to his anxiety. (hedged) — 00:01:52
  • ★★ John reminds Hank that he just got better from cancer, and that intense anxiety is really common afterwards. — 00:01:52 · Hank Green
  • ★★ John says Hank is not being silly: this is a very consequential presidential election. — 00:02:22 · United States presidential election
  • ★★★ Hank says he can't keep up: America is changing fast politically, and generative AI on top of a fast-changing media landscape makes him feel behind all the time. — 00:02:22
  • ★★ Hank says part of his work is understanding media well enough to surf along with it and commentate as a respected voice, and he now feels lost. — 00:02:51
  • ★★ Hank says he has found his identity in riding that wave; so much of his identity is tied up in it. — 00:03:20
  • ★★ Hank says understanding the landscape matters to helping run Complexly, growing Good Store and caring for Nerdfighteria, and he feels it falling through his fingers. — 00:03:20 · Complexly, Good Store, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John says Nerdfighteria is not weakening because of generative AI; maybe in five years, but right now it is stronger and more interesting than ever. — 00:04:01 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John tells Hank he is doing a really good job; Hank says he has a very hard time believing it. — 00:04:31 · Hank Green
  • ★★ Hank wishes he could see what is coming better and feels right now he can't, though he never saw the pandemic coming either. — 00:04:31 · COVID-19 pandemic
  • ★★ Hank says media has already been completely flipped over and is about to be flipped over again by autonomous agents that can create on their own. — 00:05:07
  • ★★★ John says some of Hank's distress is worry about generative AI and some is grappling for the first time with his mortality and future health anxiety. — 00:05:07
  • ★★★ John says Hank is trying to view through the lens of the universal something that is intensely personal. — 00:05:36
  • ★★ Hank says he mostly imagines himself through how he imagines others (people he knows, employees, people on Twitter and TikTok) see him. — 00:05:36 · Twitter, TikTok
  • ★★ Hank says he has realised he doesn't know whether he is a good person without that outside validation. — 00:05:36
  • ★★★ John says relying on outside validation is not good because it is always fickle; when it goes, as in a Tumblr 2013 incident, you are left hollow. — 00:05:36 · Tumblr
  • ★★★ John says to build self-worth from within: core relationships are okay, and do good not to be observed but because it is fulfilling and connects you to people. — 00:06:20
  • ★★ Hank says he has a harder time trusting himself about such things than trusting other people. — 00:06:20

00:06:49 — Curiosity as coping, tuberculosis as a gift, caring about only so many things and going deep

  • ★★★ John predicts something will emerge that he and Hank find interesting and use differently from most people, as community-based video did in 2005, and they will find fulfilment in it. (speculative) — 00:06:49
  • ★★ Hank says he found when he was sick that if he could be interested he was doing okay; curiosity isn't about identity or status. — 00:06:49
  • ★★★ John says tuberculosis has been the great gift of his life for the last four years, giving him something to think about at night instead of his worries and fears. — 00:07:18 · tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says he is grateful to everybody who followed him on that journey and agreed it matters; he doesn't think his cause is the most important one, but it is important. — 00:07:47 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says each of us can only care about so many important things; attending to one problem means ignoring another, which he struggles with. — 00:07:47
  • ★★★ John recalls Hank's advice from years ago to pick something and go deep; Hank adds that you must trust others to go deep elsewhere, since being surface everywhere, knowing only the problems, is the saddest place, which John calls the despair place. — 00:08:16
  • ★★ John: Surrounded by signed sheets, John says about 19,000 are out there and 81,000 more remain; he is actually past 20,000. — 00:08:16 · Everything Is Tuberculosis

00:08:52 — John's book signing progress, sign-off and description plugs

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: anxiety disorder · United States presidential election

Also: People: Katherine Green

Projects: Complexly · Good Store · Project for Awesome · Study Hall

Works: Can John Green Make You Care About Tuberculosis? · Everything Is Tuberculosis

Organizations: The New York Times · TikTok · Tumblr · Twitter

Terms: nerdfighter

Concepts: book censorship · death anxiety · generative artificial intelligence · online video · self-esteem · tuberculosis

Events: COVID-19 pandemic

Products: Sharpie

Also centred on anxiety disorder: Brotherhood 2.0: March 7, 2007: Stress · My Hairy Ball of Anxious Anxiety · I'm Having a Lot of Feelings · Hank's very messy post-cancer year of mistakes, meaning… · The ANXIETY IS PALPABLE · I Still Don't Have Cancer (and I'm Still Scared)

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