My Lies

2025-06-03 · letter vlog · John · 4:27 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Internet & YouTube, Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay

John says the future keeps making him a liar because he assumes present and future John are the same: he vowed never to join Twitter or use Wi-Fi, announced a desert-island novel before writing The Fault in Our Stars, and thought he was done with fiction, yet now writes fiction again; he concludes he should stop predicting and celebrate creative work's ability to surprise.

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; John's vow never to join Twitter and his naive faith in the open internet

• ★★ John recalls telling Hank, when Hank joined Twitter in 2008, that he would never join because nobody needs to know his lunch; time proved him a liar. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Twitter, Hank Green
• ★★ After joining Twitter John came to believe that megaphones for everyone and the free exchange of information would inevitably bring a more just world, which proved a little naive. — 00:00:00 · Twitter

00:00:23 — Present me and future me are not the same person; the Wi-Fi example

• ★★★ John says one of his problems is believing present and future John are the same person in the same context, so he makes big declarative statements about a future he cannot know. — 00:00:23

00:00:52 — Lies about writing: the desert-island book, nonfiction, being done with fiction

• ★ In the early 2000s, when John's roommate brought home Wi-Fi, he vowed never to use it because he already had a 100-foot Ethernet cord; the future made him a liar. (playful) — 00:00:52
• ★★ John says that before The Fault in Our Stars he confidently said on the channel his next book would be about kids on a desert island; he wrote most of it, but it had no reason for being, so he wrote the book that became The Fault in Our Stars. — 00:01:21 · The Fault in Our Stars
• ★ John jokes that a few viewers will be surprised that Crash Course John Green and Fault in Our Stars John Green are the same person. (playful) — 00:01:21 · Crash Course, The Fault in Our Stars
• ★★ John says his two latest books, The Anthropocene Reviewed and Everything Is Tuberculosis, are nonfiction for adults and differ from his novels, not really being about romance, love or friendship. — 00:01:21 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book), Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★ John says the nonfiction books are still about imagining other people complexly, his overarching theme, and both have kids who like poetry, his other jam. — 00:01:51 · imagine others complexly
• ★★ In his 20s and 30s John didn't see the point of nonfiction; when a friend left fiction for journalism, he thought it a waste of talent, believing text fiction the only way to transform readers. — 00:01:51
• ★★★ After he started writing nonfiction John announced he was done with fiction: as in The Anthropocene Reviewed, he no longer saw its point and felt his historical moment could only be met with truth. — 00:02:20 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)

• ★★ John says he missed writing fiction, as he once put it, the way you miss someone you used to love. — 00:02:20

  “I missed it in the way you miss someone you used to love”

00:02:49 — Writing fiction again: escaping himself and shrinking the empathy gap; Hank predicts better

• ★★★ Since finishing Everything Is Tuberculosis John has been writing fiction; it may never come to anything and he will not promise it becomes a book, but the process has been thrilling. — 00:02:49 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
• ★★★ John loves writing fiction because it lets him escape himself: nonfiction articulates his own perspective, fiction tries to imagine the world through someone else's eyes. — 00:02:49
• ★★★ John says trying to shrink the empathy gap through imagination turns out to be a worthwhile endeavor, even in 2025. — 00:03:18 · empathy
• ★★ John tells Hank he is quite a good future predictor whose books foresaw things John never could have imagined, while John is bad at it. — 00:03:18 · Hank Green
• ★★ John concludes he should stop predicting what he will do creatively or otherwise; ten years ago he would not have believed he'd write a book about tuberculosis. — 00:03:18 · tuberculosis

00:03:47 — The joy of creative work is surprise; toast to the unknowable future and sign-off

• ★★★ John says the privilege of his creative life is following his interests into unexpected directions; the joy of creative work is its ability to surprise, which he wants to celebrate. — 00:03:47

Threads in this video

• restate · Is the internet, including social media, good for people? — After joining Twitter John came to believe that megaphones for everyone and the free exchange of information would inevitably bring a more just world, which proved a little naive. (00:00:00)
• retold · John writes a novel about a desert island with a girl narrator (2010) — John says that before The Fault in Our Stars he confidently said on the channel his next book would be about kids on a desert island; he wrote most of it, but it had no reason for being, so he wrote the book that became The Fault in Our Stars. (00:01:21)
• looked back · The Fault in Our Stars: writing, title and publication (2011) — John says that before The Fault in Our Stars he confidently said on the channel his next book would be about kids on a desert island; he wrote most of it, but it had no reason for being, so he wrote the book that became The Fault in Our Stars. (00:01:21)
• restate · Why make things? — John loves writing fiction because it lets him escape himself: nonfiction articulates his own perspective, fiction tries to imagine the world through someone else's eyes. (00:02:49)
• restate · Can we imagine other people complexly, and what stops us? — John says trying to shrink the empathy gap through imagination turns out to be a worthwhile endeavor, even in 2025. (00:03:18)
• restate · Can a person really change who they are? — John says one of his problems is believing present and future John are the same person in the same context, so he makes big declarative statements about a future he cannot know. (00:00:23)
• looked back · Everything Is Tuberculosis: John's nonfiction book about tuberculosis (2024) — John says his two latest books, The Anthropocene Reviewed and Everything Is Tuberculosis, are nonfiction for adults and differ from his novels, not really being about romance, love or friendship. (00:01:21)
• retold · John writes his first nonfiction book, The Anthropocene Reviewed (2020) — After he started writing nonfiction John announced he was done with fiction: as in The Anthropocene Reviewed, he no longer saw its point and felt his historical moment could only be met with truth. (00:02:20)
• told · John writes his first novel in almost ten years (2025) — Since finishing Everything Is Tuberculosis John has been writing fiction; it may never come to anything and he will not promise it becomes a book, but the process has been thrilling. (00:02:49)

Where the stories that moved here went next

• John writes his first novel in almost ten years (2025) — told 2×, last update 2026

Mentioned

Central: fiction · nonfiction

Also: Projects: Crash Course

Works: Everything Is Tuberculosis · John's desert-island novel in progress (2010) · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book) · The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Twitter

Terms: imagine others complexly

Concepts: empathy · friendship · journalism · poetry (concept) · romantic love · tuberculosis · Uncertainty · Wi-Fi

Also centred on nonfiction: On Writing

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