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How Status Destroys Us

2026-07-10 · letter vlog · Hank · 6:25 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Books & writing) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, community lore

Rereading John's unreleased Hollywood, Ending, Hank reflects that John helped define authors' relationship with the internet and that The Fault in Our Stars has no real villain, then argues that the status now tied to being a YouTuber distorts people and, in an interconnected world, concentrates in those who want it most; he and John are best goofing where no money or status is attached. He plugs preorders and Smush, a word game made with John.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Hank rereading Hollywood, Ending before publication; finally understanding the comma

  • ★★ Hank has been rereading John's new book Hollywood, Ending, which he can do even though no one else has access to it yet. — 00:00:00 · Hollywood, Ending, John Green
  • ★ Hank admits it embarrassingly took him this long to understand the comma in the book's title, and calls it a good comma. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Hollywood, Ending

00:00:29 — John's early role in the author's relationship with the internet; TFIOS fame and the retreat to Vlogbrothers; shrinking your audience

  • ★★★ Hank says only John's remark made him realize how early, and so how defining, John was to authors' relationship with the internet; John being extremely online was part of TFIOS becoming a phenomenon. — 00:00:29 · John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★★ Hank says the phenomenon of TFIOS drove John, and to a lesser extent Hank, to retreat to higher-barrier corners of the internet like Vlogbrothers, with its decades-long history of tiny chickens, Projects for Awesome and bean Furbies and videos not expected to draw many viewers. — 00:00:58 · The Fault in Our Stars, Vlogbrothers, tiny chickens, Project for Awesome

  • ★★ Hank names a secret of their success that he tells YouTubers all the time: never be afraid to intentionally shrink your audience when it suits you. — 00:00:58 · YouTube

    “never be afraid to intentionally shrink your audience when it suits you”

00:01:21 — The Fault in Our Stars as a book without a villain: cancer and Peter Van Houten

  • ★★ Rereading Hollywood, Ending made Hank think about how TFIOS itself also had elements of being about this. — 00:01:21 · Hollywood, Ending, The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ Hank says his own books have villains, straight 'you're supposed to hate this guy' villains. (playful) — 00:01:21
  • ★★★ Hank says The Fault in Our Stars is a book without a villain unless you count cancer, which neither he nor the book's characters really do. — 00:01:21 · The Fault in Our Stars, cancer
  • ★★ Hank says the book gives cancer no maliciousness or cunning: it evades control not by being smart or evil but by doing what it does, like a fire burning a home; fire can't be evil. — 00:01:50 · The Fault in Our Stars, cancer
  • ★★ Hank says Peter Van Houten has a better claim to being the villain: with little effort he could make things not awful for children who have suffered too much, and chooses not to. — 00:02:17
  • ★★ Hank says the characters feel the injury but see Van Houten as an object of pity, made indifferent to others' humanity by his own suffering: bad, but not really villainy. — 00:02:17 · The Fault in Our Stars

00:03:04 — Subtle villainy in Hollywood, Ending; John the brother and John the author

  • ★★ Hank says that in Hollywood, Ending John has been subtle with villainy, doing it again in a very interesting way; even saying that may be too much. — 00:03:04 · Hollywood, Ending, John Green
  • ★★ Hank says that in his head there is John Green his brother and John Green the author, and he is still a fan of the author, separately from their brotherly relationship. — 00:03:04 · John Green

00:03:33 — Hank as a fan of John the novelist; being a YouTuber in 2007 versus now; how status distorts and concentrates

  • ★★ Hank says he is a fan, John is good at that job, and he is so glad John wrote another novel; he didn't know if it would ever happen again. — 00:03:33 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank says being a YouTuber in 2007 meant goofing off in a small scene of weirdos with no cultural relevance, status or money; nearly 20 years later it is a high-status identity that can make you very rich. — 00:04:15 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says they have seen the distortions this status creates in systems, individuals and themselves, ranging from kind of fine to really bad, with not many good. — 00:04:15
  • ★★ Hank says, allowing he may be too nostalgic, that the more status gets tied to it, the more you can convince yourself something is okay to do. (hedged) — 00:04:44
  • ★★★ Hank suggests that maybe one of the worst things about the world is that it is now so interconnected that status can keep concentrating forever. (hedged) — 00:04:44
  • ★★★ Hank argues that if status requires that much drive and indifference to the dehumanization it brings, it will go to those who want it most. — 00:04:44

00:05:15 — Sign-off, preorder plug, thanks to John, the games 4x3 and Smush; goofing where there is no money or status

  • ★★ Hank notes he forgot to say it before editing: viewers can preorder the book right now, and he doesn't think they will regret it. — 00:05:15 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★ Hank thanks John for the collaboration and for being a touchpoint who perhaps springs him back as he gets too close to the sun. — 00:05:15 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank made a Connections-like game called 4x3; on vacation many people played it, and John indulged him in talking about what a John Green game would be. — 00:05:15 · John Green
  • ★★★ Hank announces Smush, a Spelling Bee-like game with boards by John that plays much faster and rewards casual and strategic play, since each letter can be used only five times. — 00:05:55 · John Green
  • ★★ Hank says that of the 28,000 people who tried Smush on its first day, 21,000 came back to play the next day. — 00:05:55
  • ★★★ Hank says that once again they are goofing in a space with no money or status tied to it, which he thinks is where they are at their best. — 00:05:55 · Vlogbrothers

In the description and comments

  • ★ In a comment, Hank says the video was short before he added more material, but he couldn't find an elegant way to edit out the 'a little bit short' sentence. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Hollywood, Ending · social status · The Fault in Our Stars · villain

Also: Projects: Project for Awesome

Works: 4x3 · Beanie Sanfurbs · Connections (game) · Smush · Spelling Bee (game)

Organizations: YouTube

Terms: tiny chickens

Concepts: cancer · dehumanization · globalization

Characters: Peter Van Houten

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