No notes, no script, what is this?
2008?
Good morning Hank, it's Tuesday.
I really liked your 'Keeping It Real' video, so I decided that I am also going to try to
keep it real today, for starters by using slang that was last popular before many of
our viewers were born.
Also heads up, I got a little bit of the tiny chicken disease, so I'm coming to you today
with my husky voice.
I feel like I could narrate a movie trailer right now like "IN A WORLD WHERE A MAN HAS
TWO CHILDREN WHO ARE ESSENTIALLY TINY CARRIERS OF VIRUSES."
So Hank, in the last couple of months I had this amazing trip to Ethiopia, which was so
wonderful, I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have gone there.
And then I got meningitis which, like, less grateful for.
But anyway at some point in the last 6 months I started to kind of have a existential crisis.
Like, Hank, young people often ask me what they should do with their lives and I always
say that's is a question wrongly put, because you don't just do one thing with your life.
But that's kind of a cop out because the honest answer is I don't know what to do with my
own life, let alone what you should do with yours!
Like, we are here on Earth for a very brief period of time, and we have to use that time
wisely, and I feel - oh God, it's coming again.
[coughs] I meant both the cough and the existential crisis.
So yeah, I don't know.
Here's what I do know: I like writing books, and I like making stuff for, and with, Nerdfighters.
Like the experience of 'The Fault in Our Stars' movie was awesome, Hank, but it was mostly
awesome because it felt like Hollywood was making like a $15 million present for Nerdfighteria.
And I think it's going to be the same way with the 'Paper Towns' movie, or even more
so, but I'm really not that into Hollywood-y stuff; I just don't know what I should be
doing.
Should I write a new book?
I'm trying to write a new book.
Should I spend tremendous amounts of time ruminating about the terrible things that
people say about me and my work on the internet?
Probably not, but I do.
Should I be focused on MentalFloss, or Crash Course, or the Art Assignment, or Vlogbrothers,
or the all-important AFC Wimbledon Wimbly Wombly's?
And in trying to do all of these things, am I doing none of them well?
Now Hank, as you pointed out in your video, these are problems of extreme, extreme privilege,
and I am grateful to have them, but I want to figure out how to be a good Nerdfighter
and how to be part of a strong Nerdfighter community.
And before I get to your survey -- which, thank you for doing that survey -- in many
ways, the community is incredibly strong, like, we just raised $300,000 for Water.org
in Ethiopia.
That's more money than was raised by the first six Projects for Awesomes combined!
So, I don't want to be all doom and gloom about this; I just want to be honest about
the fact that, like, I am stressed out right now and don't know what to do.
Like, Hank, it speaks to my current overall emotional well-being that when I saw the results
of the survey about what Nerdfighters want us to do, and the first thing that they chose
was to spend more time with our friends and family, I began to weep.
Because I know I should spend more time with my children, I mean, how else am I going to
get all of these viruses except from them?
After friends and family, you guys wanted us to help people understand current events
which is something that we haven't been doing enough of lately, Hank, because it takes a
lot of work and we are doing a lot of other things.
But that is good to know that that is a priority for the community.
Then you want us to raise money and attention for charities around the world.That is a hugely
important part of our work, becoming a more important part, I think, so maybe we're good
there.
Then: Crash Course which we spend a lot of time on, so: good.
By the way, in the coming months you might be seeing less of my face on Crash Course,
but I will still be working a lot on it.
But my favorite result of this survey is that in dead-last is 'Making viral videos that
get lots of views'.
So the thing that, like, metrics and business strategies would tell you to do is literally
the least interesting thing to Nerdfighteria.
Which is good, because it is also not that interesting to me.
You also wanted us to do more stuff like make more Vlogbrothers videos and focus on science
education.
Which is great, because it means that your values and our values still line up.
I do have one question, though.
I'm not gonna set up a survey or anything because I don't know how to do that, but,
like, what would you like us to do less of?
So I can write a book, and hopefully have more time to, like, be a Nerdfighter and try
to build Nerdfightastic stuff within the community.
Nerdfighteria, thank you again for helping to raise more than $300,000 for Water.org,
which is going to permanently transform the lives of more than 10,000 people in Ethiopia.
And most of all, thank you for sticking with us and helping us again and again and again
to find our way.
Hank, I will see you on Friday.