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The Things We Don't Discuss

2026-06-05 · letter vlog · Hank, John · 12:03 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Philosophy & meaning) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, guest or collab

Hank tells John that being made out of the internet tempts creators to treat views as metrics, as TikTok's inflated view counts show, though views are people; he launches his podcast Humans with a clip of John on Mark Twain, not sharing everything, and trading trauma for attention online.

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; the first episode of Humans with John, and why Hank feels made out of the internet

  • ★★★ Hank tells John that a few weeks ago the two of them recorded the very first episode of Hank's new podcast, Humans. — 00:00:00 · Humans, John Green
  • ★ John opened the episode by telling Hank he does not have John's blessing to start the podcast. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Humans
  • ★★ Hank says he feels very strongly compelled to make the podcast, though he is not entirely sure why. — 00:00:00 · Humans
  • ★★★ Hank says he feels a little bit made out of the internet, and starting a podcast is not necessarily a way to be less so. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Creators and YouTube share a goal; views are people, yet TikTok and Facebook inflate view counts to manipulate creators

  • ★★ Hank likes being made out of the internet: it is fun and interesting and brings advantages. — 00:00:29
  • ★ Hank jokes that he would love to list creators viewers shouldn't watch, but it would alienate their viewers and start a fight. (playful) — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ Hank says YouTube wants people to spend time on YouTube, and creators taken together want the same, so the actions creators take for views serve YouTube's goal: a collaboration. — 00:01:27 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says it is very easy for a YouTuber to lose touch with the reality that views are people: a thousand people before a stage feel very different from a thousand views. — 00:01:56 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says TikTok counts a view earlier than YouTube: a swipe watched for two or three seconds might count, while YouTube requires a click and longer watching. (hedged) — 00:03:00 · TikTok, YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says TikTok's separate monetization metric, qualified views, hovers between 20 and 50% of the reported view number. — 00:03:29 · TikTok
  • ★★★ Hank says TikTok reports higher view numbers to look impressive and partly to manipulate creators into feeling more successful. — 00:03:59 · TikTok
  • ★★ Hank says Facebook began inflating view counts around 2014, a scandal then, though now everyone accepts it. (hedged) — 00:03:59 · Facebook
  • ★★★ Hank says the metric becomes the thing and can be used to manipulate people, because we forget that views are people. — 00:03:59

00:04:28 — The internet wants views seen as metrics; Hank's hour in the comments; people are the source of the value

  • ★★★ Hank says the internet wants you to see the view as a metric, not a person; but views and creators are people, even if it feels like technology. — 00:04:28
  • ★★ Hank still spends at least an hour in the comments on the day of every Vlogbrothers upload, to see the people-y parts. — 00:04:28 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank says comments and John feel like people, and Vlogbrothers remains among the most people-y things he has done online. — 00:04:57 · Vlogbrothers, John Green
  • ★★★ Hank says systems would have us imagine away the people, but people are the whole thing, the reason anyone does anything and the source of the value. — 00:04:57
  • ★★ Hank says he felt strongly drawn to making Humans, which he has worked on for over a year. — 00:04:57 · Humans

00:05:26 — Why Hank made Humans; the first episode with John is out now; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank feels we are getting a little lost with regard to tech and must understand what the source of the value is. — 00:05:26
  • ★★ Hank does not think people understand how cool and how weird they are. — 00:05:26
  • ★★★ Hank says the first episode of Humans, with John, is out now, and it covered almost entirely new ground for the brothers. — 00:05:26 · Humans, John Green

00:06:10 — Podcast clip: Mark Twain as John's model of a public writer, things you can think and not share, John's boyhood stories

  • ★★ In the podcast Hank asks whether Mark Twain may have had something to do with the brothers' success, through John understanding his life. (speculative) — 00:06:10 · John Green
  • ★★ John says he is already uncomfortable with how much he has compared himself to America's greatest writer. (playful) — 00:06:10
  • ★★ Hank says John understood Twain's life better than nearly all Americans: Twain was a public intellectual, a humorist and a writer. (playful) — 00:06:39 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank notes that John studied Mark Twain in college. — 00:06:39 · John Green
  • ★★★ John says he thinks more about Mark Twain than anyone else when it comes to making stuff online and being a public figure as well as a writer. — 00:06:39
  • ★★★ John: Declining to make more Mark Twain content, John tells Hank there are things you can think and not share, and that it is quite rewarding. (playful) — 00:07:17 · Hank Green
  • ★★ Hank recalls that John went to boarding school at 14 and came home with long, story-shaped stories that Hank listened to rapt. — 00:07:17 · John Green

00:08:13 — Podcast clip: John on stories he won't tell, trading trauma for attention, OCD and 'you've been very public about it'

  • ★★★ John: Asked whether he withholds good stories, John says all the time: there are a few things he doesn't talk about, even if good or helpful, because he doesn't want to. — 00:08:13
  • ★★★ John says we now trade our traumas and experiences openly for attention online; he has done it too, and it can be really helpful to people. — 00:08:13 · attention economy
  • ★★ John says talking about his OCD has helped many people feel comfortable being themselves and see that one can live a rich life with a serious mental illness. — 00:08:45 · mental disorder
  • ★★★ John calls sharing a complex thing, but online incentives always reward sharing the terrible things happening to you, because they get attention. — 00:08:45 · attention economy
  • ★★★ John says once you share something it isn't yours anymore: that can be liberating, but you lose control of the story and of when you tell it. — 00:09:14
  • ★★★ John says interviewers excuse inappropriate personal questions, such as about his OCD, by saying he has been very public about it. — 00:09:47
  • ★★ John says he chose to be public about OCD only in ways he fully controls, like a Vlogbrothers video, and then loses all control because he has been 'very public'. — 00:10:10 · Vlogbrothers

00:10:32 — Podcast clip: Hollywood, Ending; humans may not stay the only thinking entity but may be the source of meaning; where to find Humans

  • ★★ John names his new novel, Hollywood, Ending, out September 22, 2026. — 00:10:32 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Hank says that by titling the podcast Humans he is partly saying it is about humans no longer being the only thinking entity on the planet. — 00:10:32 · Humans
  • ★★★ Hank says humans might eventually not be the only thinking entity on the planet, nor the only source of strength or intelligence. (hedged) — 00:10:56
  • ★★★ Hank suggests that maybe humans are the ones who define what matters and which problems get solved, as the source of the universe having meaning. (hedged) — 00:10:56 · meaning of life
  • ★★ John says he likes the idea that humans are the source of the universe having meaning. — 00:11:21 · meaning of life
  • ★★ John says that Hank believes in constructed meaning and he himself in derived meaning. — 00:11:21 · meaning of life, John Green
  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to search for Humans wherever they get podcasts; enough listening might put it on a trending list and help others find it. — 00:11:21 · Humans

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Mentioned

Central: Humans · Mark Twain · YouTube

Also: artificial intelligence · attention economy · Facebook · Hollywood, Ending · meaning of life · mental disorder · obsessive-compulsive disorder · TikTok

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