Skip to content

Gastrointestinal Hypermotility in Tuatara

2025-02-18 · letter vlog · John · 4:01 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Nerdfighteria (also: Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, fundraising ask, self promotion, community lore, heavy topic

After a fake-topic title meant to keep casual viewers away, John says the 2025 Project for Awesome lifted him out of a discouraged, fearful month: it shows a strong us needs no them, that people together achieve far more than alone, and that community is what he is proudest of.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Fake topic (tuatara digestion) and why the title is deliberately unclickable after two million-view videos

  • ★ In the mock opening topic, John says the tuatara is the oldest extant reptile species in the world, with a temporal range going back 250 million years. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John says that over the last month two vlogbrothers videos got over a million views, which was uncomfortable and a real challenge for their comment moderators. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Niche channel; the P4A as a pick-me-up in a rough month; a strong us needs no them

  • ★★ John says the brothers are niche YouTubers making things for an 18-year-old internet community, Nerdfighteria, not MrBeast, and should not make videos that get a million views. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says he therefore picked a title no one would casually click on; the video is not really about tuatara digestion but about the Project for Awesome. (playful) — 00:00:29 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John recalls that the brothers have run the Project for Awesome, an annual charity fundraiser, with Nerdfighteria since 2007. — 00:00:29 · Project for Awesome, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John says he has had a rough month professionally and personally and feels discouraged; the P4A came when he was tired and overwhelmed but needed a pick-me-up. — 00:00:58 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says that with a pick-me-up you never pick yourself up: you are picked up by the people around you. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ John says over 10,000 people came together in the P4A and raised $3.6 million and counting while having a good time and being good to each other. — 00:01:27 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ The P4A reminded John that we do not need a them in order to create a strong us. — 00:01:27 · othering, Project for Awesome
  • ★★ John says alleviating suffering is noble and can also be fun, whether easing loneliness by building community and cheering on a silly in-joke or raising money for stronger healthcare systems in impoverished communities. — 00:01:27

00:01:57 — John's despair and fear, the book plug, the bucket of water against the fire, living amid history

  • ★★★ John says he is never far from despair and lately has been consumed by fear, making it hard to get out of bed and promote his new book Everything Is Tuberculosis, out a month from today. — 00:01:57 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
  • ★ John jokes that viewers have already pre-ordered his book, and says signed copies are available wherever good books are sold. (playful) — 00:01:57 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says despair is unproductive: it wants him to sleep and feel hollow anger, and tells him there is nothing to do, like bringing a little bucket of water to a fire. — 00:01:57
  • ★★ John says the present feels like the culmination of history, but unlike a soccer game or a play, when you live amid history you cannot know how much time is left. — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — The P4A gives hope: buckets together, $25 million raised, community as what he is proudest of

  • ★★★ The P4A gives John hope: he has only his little bucket for the fire, but others have theirs, and together we accomplish vastly more than alone. — 00:02:55 · Project for Awesome, hope, collective action
  • ★★ John says that over its history the Project for Awesome has raised over $25 million for charity, which none of them could have done alone. — 00:03:24 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John says the P4A is in-jokes and memes but also years of memories and familiar names: it is community, the thing built over 18 years he is proudest of, and thanks Nerdfighteria. — 00:03:24 · Project for Awesome, Nerdfighteria

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: despair · hope · Project for Awesome

Also: collective action · Everything Is Tuberculosis · fear · loneliness · MrBeast · othering · tuatara

Also centred on despair: The Seduction of Despair · taking a break · Moving to Hope from Hopelessness (3 ways) · Despair is Not Wisdom

← Previous: Let's Do a Good · Next → No Video Today!!