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The Best Email I Ever Got

2026-10-23 · letter vlog · Hank · 6:31 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Projects · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Hank says the email in which Wordle creator Josh Wardle praised his game 4x3 felt like winning an Oscar, while the Emmy and Focus Friend's App of the Year left him cold: he is accountable to the people who use what he makes, and meaning comes from people, not statuettes.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Focus Friend's Lifetime Pro sale, which ends on Halloween

  • ★★ Hank says the limited-time sale on the Focus Friend Lifetime Pro subscription, which he earlier told viewers to wait for, is on now and ends on Halloween (31 October 2026). — 00:00:00 · Focus Friend

00:00:13 — The Emmy he did not care about, succeeding in a new medium and the stand-up special

  • ★★ Hank says he has never cared much about the entertainment industry, and this led him to believe something wrong about himself that he is now correcting. — 00:00:13
  • ★★ When the brothers were starting out as YouTubers, many of their YouTube colleagues wanted TV, movie and commercial work; Hank found this baffling and thought them a bit silly. — 00:00:13 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank wanted things his colleagues found baffling, like writing for Scientific American or ranking his websites high on Google: he started on YouTube as a fan of internet things, not TV. — 00:00:36 · Google, YouTube
  • ★★★ When the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a show Hank produced on YouTube, won an Emmy, he did not pay to get a statuette for himself, which he now feels very dumb about. — 00:00:36 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says he skipped the Emmy statuette because he just didn't care then, but now he does and gets it. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ Hank did not care about winning an Emmy: what mattered was the Lizzie Bennet Diaries getting lots of YouTube views and fan reactions on Tumblr and Twitter, the people whose judgment he cared about. — 00:01:01 · YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter
  • ★★ Hank says which accolades and appreciation feel good differs greatly from person to person, though there is some consistency. — 00:01:01
  • ★★★ What really gets Hank is succeeding in a new medium (an event, a nerdy punk song, a t-shirt, an iPhone app, a science fiction novel, a stand-up special): not winning awards, just being better than expected. — 00:01:31
  • ★★★ Hank is very proud of his stand-up special; many cancer survivors have told him they loved it and that it helped them, which matters most to him. — 00:01:31
  • ★ Hank points to a Letterboxd review of his stand-up special that loves him and says he should make more stuff. — 00:02:00
  • ★★★ Hank recently got an email from Josh Wardle, maker of Wordle, saying he was impressed by decisions in 4x3; for Hank it was, he imagines, exactly like winning an Oscar. (hedged) — 00:02:00

00:02:15 — An email from Josh Wardle, the Wordle guy

  • ★★ Josh Wardle also sent Hank a video of himself playing 4x6, a game Hank was still working on, with a lot of advice on it. — 00:02:29
  • ★★★ Hank announces that his game 4x6 is out now, though still in beta, so it may change here and there. — 00:02:29

00:02:51 — Games updates: 4x6 is out, and a developer joins

  • ★★ In 4x6 there is a bank on the side, pieces can only be pulled from the right, and a color cannot go next to a different color; Monday is easiest, Sunday hardest; Josh Wardle's advice improved it. — 00:02:58
  • ★★ Hank has brought on developer Austin Witherspoon to help with his games, which he finds rewarding and wants to do much more with. — 00:02:58

00:03:28 — Humans wins a Signal Award

  • ★★ Hank's podcast Humans won a Signal Award for Best Conversation Starter for its episode with astronaut Reid Wiseman; Hank agrees and calls it a good place to start. — 00:03:28 · Humans
  • ★★ Focus Friend winning Google's 2025 App of the Year outright, not in a category, is a huge deal but fell flat for Hank. — 00:03:28 · Focus Friend, Google

00:03:42 — Why Google's App of the Year fell flat, and who he is accountable to

  • ★★ Hank says he does not know what App of the Year means, how app ecosystems work, what the other apps are like or why Focus Friend won, only that it is a good app. — 00:03:57 · Focus Friend
  • ★★ Because Focus Friend launched to a lot of people, Hank says, it can run without advertising, tracking or manipulative subscription tactics, pro-social choices hard for other app makers. — 00:03:57 · Focus Friend, online advertising
  • ★★ Bria, who co-leads Focus Friend with Hank, does care about the award: she has made apps and knows app developers, and her being in that world makes the app much better. — 00:04:42 · Focus Friend
  • ★★★ Hank is not accountable to Google and does not care what Google thinks of his app: the people he feels accountable to are those whose judgment he cares about. — 00:04:42 · Google
  • ★★ Hank feels accountable to the people who use what he makes, more so to experts like Josh Wardle, but on whether something was liked or helped, users are the experts. — 00:05:07
  • ★★ Not knowing the app or Hollywood ecosystems, Hank does not understand how their physical awards connect to people whose judgment he should care about. — 00:05:07
  • ★★★ What Hank needs instead is reviews, kind emails to the Dear Hank and John inbox, and people showing him their Awesome Socks or Beans house or, most of all, saying Crash Course helped them in school. — 00:05:36 · Dear Hank and John, Awesome Socks Club, Crash Course
  • ★★ Hank urges anyone inspired to tell someone they like the thing they made to do it at that very moment and track down a way to reach them, because it matters so much. — 00:06:06

  • ★★★ Hank says people are where each other's meaning comes from, not statuettes. — 00:06:06

    “We are where each other's meaning comes from. It's not statuettes. It's people.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: 4x6 · Emmy Award · Focus Friend · Google · Josh Wardle

Also: People: Austin Witherspoon · Bria · Reid Wiseman

Projects: Awesome Socks Club · Crash Course · Dear Hank and John · Humans

Works: 4x3 · Hank Green's stand-up comedy special on Dropout · The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Organizations: Letterboxd · Scientific American · Signal Awards · Tumblr · Twitter · YouTube

Concepts: online advertising

Events: Academy Awards · Halloween (holiday)

Products: iPhone

Only in the description or credits: Wordle

Replies to

  • continues · The Productivity Lie — “a couple videos ago, I told people that they should not sign up for the Lifetime Pro subscription to Focus Friend”

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