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The Test of a First Rate Intelligence

2026-10-08 · letter vlog · John · 4:50 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing (also: Philosophy & meaning, Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, fundraising ask, community lore

Tired near the end of Pizzamas and his Hollywood, Ending tour, John argues that holding opposed truths at once (loving and tiring of travel, TB progress and TB deaths, the internet's harms and the joy of meeting nerdfighters) is essential, borrowing F. Scott Fitzgerald's test of a first-rate intelligence.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Airline loyalty status (Delta Diamond Medallion) and John's tiredness late in the tour

  • ★★ John recalls seeing his first Delta Diamond Medallion luggage tag, the program's top tier, about 20 years ago; its owner said it had cost him his marriage. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John now reaches Diamond Medallion by March or April every year, which feels like a dubious achievement, even though it has not cost him his marriage. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John loves travel and calls it a privilege, but he is tired of airports and limping to the finish of the Hollywood, Ending tour, missing his family, his bed and his wardrobe. — 00:00:29 · Hollywood, Ending

00:00:59 — John's Pizzamas hoodie and the last days of Pizzamas merch for Partners In Health

  • ★★ John shows his Pizzamas hoodie, which made it into the meager supplies of the carry-on suitcase he has lived out of for almost a month: it has "pizza" on the aglets and Pizza Johns inside the hood; he praises DFTBA for committing to the weirdest bit. — 00:00:59 · Pizzamas, Pizza John, DFTBA Records

00:01:28 — Competing wants: rest versus performing in Tucson; LA tickets; the author's isolated job versus promoting art

  • ★★★ John asks viewers to get Pizzamas items at pizzamas.com, available only for the next few days; all proceeds go to Partners In Health. — 00:01:28 · Pizzamas, Partners In Health
  • ★★★ John wants to lie in bed in Pizzamas loungewear for two days but also wants to perform tonight in Tucson: wanting competing things is a hallmark of human experience. — 00:01:28 · Pizzamas
  • ★★ Most of the rest of the tour is sold out, but tickets remain for Los Angeles; John would love to see viewers in or near LA (hollywoodendingbook.com). — 00:01:57 · Los Angeles, Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★★ John says being an author is a weird job: most of it is isolated work alone in a basement, yet it depends on getting out there into the machine that commodifies human experience. — 00:01:57
  • ★★ John doesn't dislike either part of the job, but promoting art is weird and difficult, especially art about whether art can survive its own commodification. — 00:02:27 · Hollywood, Ending
  • ★★★ John calls time with readers among the most magical experiences of his life: on this incredible tour he has seen over 20,000 people, about 17,000 nerdfighters and 3,000 other readers. — 00:02:27 · Nerdfighteria, Hollywood, Ending

00:02:56 — The joy of the tour: big audiences of nerdfighters, John Darnielle on touring

  • ★★ Part of the joy is having more than five people at his book events, unknown for his first couple of books; he also feels the community's energy and encouragement in real life. (playful) — 00:02:56 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John relates to John Darnielle's remark that the 22 hours on tour not performing are the work and the two hours on stage are the joy, though he is also mega tired. — 00:02:56

00:03:25 — Fitzgerald's test of holding opposed ideas, applied to travel, the internet and tuberculosis; sign-off

  • ★★★ John says holding competing feelings is a hallmark of being a grown-up, borrowing F. Scott Fitzgerald's line that a first-rate intelligence can hold two opposed ideas at once and still function. — 00:03:25

    “the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in your mind at once”

  • ★★ It is both true that John loves travel and is tired of traveling, and that he wants to be on stage and desperately wants to be home in his basement. — 00:03:25

  • ★★★ Online, John struggles to hold opposed ideas at once because the social internet does not reward nuance, but he says that work remains essential. — 00:03:25 · social media
  • ★★★ John says that in the last 25 years tuberculosis deaths have fallen by over 30%, yet we failed every one of the 1.2 million people who died of TB last year (2025). — 00:03:54 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says holding such opposed truths together is hard, especially now, but essential, because otherwise we rest on our laurels or give in to despair. — 00:03:54

  • ★★★ Meeting so many nerdfighters on tour reminded John the internet is not merely bad; thinking it is fails to hold opposed truths, since the truth resists simplicity. — 00:04:23 · Nerdfighteria, the truth resists simplicity

    “The truth, as usual, Hank, resists simplicity.”

  • ★ John admits this has not been a particularly funny Pizzamas or an easy one on the road, but it has been quite joyful; he wishes Happy Pizzamas one last time. — 00:04:23 · Pizzamas

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: F. Scott Fitzgerald · John Darnielle

Projects: Pizzamas

Works: Hollywood, Ending

Organizations: Delta Air Lines · Partners In Health

Terms: Pizza John · the truth resists simplicity

Concepts: adulthood · commodification · despair · frequent-flyer program · Internet · social media · tuberculosis

Places: Los Angeles · Tucson, Arizona

Only in the description or credits: DFTBA Records

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