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We Did It…

2025-10-31 · letter vlog · Hank · 8:17 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Global development (also: Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay · tags: fundraising ask, timely hook

Answering people who say John only cares about tuberculosis, Hank argues that problems have size, difficulty and visibility, and that big, solvable problems persist mainly because they lack visibility, which is why John's focus on TB is his genius; he tells how retitling John's Philippines video rescued its views, and announces the ribbon-cutting of the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone that the community helped fund.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — People say John only cares about TB; problems without self-sustaining business models

  • ★★ Hank says he has seen people online say John Green only cares about tuberculosis; it is a little silly but it gets under his skin. — 00:00:00 · John Green, tuberculosis
  • ★ Hank jokes that, as farmers grow food and sell it, Twitter grows outrage and sells it. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank says not every solution has a good business model, but because problems are bad, some people sometimes pay enough attention to bring solutions that are not economically self-sustaining; in many places TB is one of these problems. — 00:00:29 · tuberculosis

00:00:58 — John's Philippines video underperforms; the click feedback loop; John's text asking for a new thumbnail

  • ★★ Hank says John's Philippines video was doing poorly: fewer viewers than usual clicked its thumbnail, so YouTube showed it to fewer people, a feedback loop. — 00:00:58 · YouTube, recommender system
  • ★★ Hank says John, sleep deprived and twelve hours from his usual time zone, texted asking whether he needed an improved thumbnail, and Hank took it on. — 00:00:58

00:01:27 — Three qualities of problems: size, difficulty, and visibility

  • ★★★ Hank introduces three qualities of problems; the first is how big a problem is, seen mostly through suffering such as hunger, grief, fear, sickness or death. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank says the second quality is how difficult it is to alleviate the suffering, e.g. a health crisis is harder to address in a country at civil war. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Hank says a third quality, which he calls visibility, might matter more than size and difficulty. (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Hank lists what feeds visibility: whether a topic is contentious, feels like news, affects people we feel kinship with, fits an existing narrative, is easy to film, or feels close. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Hank says visibility matters a great deal, perhaps more than the magnitude of the suffering or the ease of the solution. (hedged) — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Hank says most very big, very visible problems are very hard, since big, visible and easy problems would already have been solved. — 00:02:55

00:03:17 — Why John focuses on TB; cancer versus TB costs

  • ★★★ Hank says many problems are very big and actually solvable but have low visibility. — 00:03:17
  • ★★★ Hank says the critics really ask why John focuses on a problem no one else does, and that John's genius is focusing on a problem people don't care much about. — 00:03:17 · John Green, tuberculosis
  • ★★★ Hank says people not caring much about such a problem is the main reason it exists; if it were more visible and salient, it would have been solved. — 00:03:46
  • ★★★ Hank says about a thirtieth of the money spent on cancer treatment would be enough to cut the number of people with active TB by 80 or 90%. — 00:03:46 · cancer, tuberculosis
  • ★★ Hank says a case of cancer in the US costs north of $100,000 per patient, while TB costs around $1,000 per patient. — 00:03:46 · cancer, United States, tuberculosis

00:04:19 — YouTubers get attention: algorithms amplify tiny signals; the new title rescues the video

  • ★★ Hank says this is no indictment of people: humans care about what they care about, and expanding our circle of empathy is in some ways contrary to our nature. — 00:04:19 · empathy
  • ★★ Hank says the brothers are YouTubers, and YouTubers figure out how to get attention. — 00:04:19 · attention economy, YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says John's video was trending toward being their worst-performing video in many months. — 00:04:19
  • ★★★ Hank says the terrible thing about algorithmic platforms is that they amplify tiny signals, as YouTube does in serving ever more enticing content. — 00:04:19 · recommender system, YouTube
  • ★ Hank says their second-best-performing video of recent months had just 1% higher engagement. — 00:04:19
  • ★★★ Hank workshopped and tested titles for engagement and ended up with one that intersects a narrative people are engaged with and understandably outraged by. — 00:04:48
  • ★★ Hank says that while people sometimes use their powers to watch numbers go up, John more than anyone uses his to put attention where it is most deserved. — 00:05:17 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank says the same video, with only a new title and thumbnail, is now on track to be their second most viewed video of the last few months. — 00:05:17
  • ★★ Hank says people do care, as responses to the video showed. — 00:05:17

00:05:47 — The $25 million pledge exceeded; ribbon cut at the Maternal Center of Excellence; what the facility offers

  • ★★★ Hank recalls that shortly after John's first video from Sierra Leone six years ago, the brothers pledged to raise $25 million for a hospital without knowing how, and exceeded the goal. — 00:05:47 · John Green, Sierra Leone
  • ★★★ Hank says the money came from hundreds of thousands of sock sales, dozens of major gifts, a store that donates its profit, and many Nerdfighters giving once or monthly. — 00:05:47 · Good Store, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ Hank announces that the ribbon has just been cut at the Maternal Center of Excellence at Koidu Government Hospital, thanking the community, Partners In Health and Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health. — 00:06:16 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Koidu Government Hospital, Partners In Health, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Hank says the MCOE, built and staffed by Sierra Leoneans, invests not only in community health but in the economy, medical education and health infrastructure of Sierra Leone and Kono District. — 00:06:45 · Maternal Center of Excellence, Sierra Leone
  • ★★ Hank says everyone who supported the MCOE, with silly socks, a monthly donation or a $300,000 gift, supports not just mothers but entire communities. — 00:06:45
  • ★★★ Hank says the MCOE expands the maternity ward and special care baby unit from 48 to 120 beds, including the nation's first neonatal ICU, with reliable electricity, piped oxygen and surgical suites. — 00:07:14 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★★ Hank says when the MCOE's doors open in early 2026, lives will be saved immediately. — 00:07:14 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ Hank says the MCOE's real impact, healthier mothers, stronger families and a more resilient health system, will grow over years. — 00:07:14 · Maternal Center of Excellence
  • ★★ Hank says PIH and the Ministry of Health work with the community to make it last: employing local women in construction, training health workers, building sustainable infrastructure. — 00:07:43 · Partners In Health
  • ★★ Hank says the real work is done on the ground by wonderful people, and he is grateful to them and to everyone who supported the project, even by watching. — 00:07:43

00:08:12 — John's jet lag; sign-off

  • ★ Hank says he would hope John is doing better with jet lag, but knows he is not. (playful) — 00:08:12

In the description and comments

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Maternal Center of Excellence · tuberculosis

Also: Projects: Good Store

Organizations: Koidu Government Hospital · Ministry of Health and Sanitation (Sierra Leone) · Partners In Health · Twitter · YouTube

Concepts: attention economy · cancer · empathy · jet lag · neonatal intensive care unit · recommender system · vicious circle

Places: Kono District · Philippines · Sierra Leone · United States

Replies to

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 6 videos, 2025-10-28 – 2025-11-11.