good morning Hank it's Tuesday it's
question Tuesday the day that I answer
real questions from real nerdfighters
people had a lot of tough questions
today so we're going deep
I feel really alone and isolated and I
don't know what to do how do I break
this cycle and go outside I know what
you mean about it being a cycle like
whenever I feel lonely I often do things
that distract me but ultimately make my
loneliness worse and then I'm deeper
into it which makes it harder to crawl
out of and that can start to feel
infinite but it is not it does get
better it will get better and I don't
think this is happening because you lack
courage but I do encourage you to talk
to someone today that you trust in real
life a parent a teacher a friend someone
and tell them that you are struggling
and need support what is the meaning of
life geez I think it's different for
different people and even different at
different times but for me right now
it's to try to use the gift of human
consciousness to pay attention what are
some things you're enjoying now that
you're off social media so the first
time I fell in love like nothing felt
real unless I either experienced it with
the person I loved or told them about it
later and I think that's kind of how I
treated Instagram and Twitter for the
last couple years like an experiences
realness was partly contingent upon its
shared Ness and I'm really enjoying
looking at things outside the frame of
shareability
do you collect anything that other
people might not understand but brings
you joy yes football scarves admittedly
they have very limited function but what
a beautiful form how can you make
yourself like physics watch
minutephysics but more generally I think
sometimes it feels like the point of
school is to take tests and get grades
and feel a constant gnawing stomach
flipping worried but in fact the point
of school is to understand the universe
better and physics can help you do that
what's your favorite movie right now my
favorite movie forever is Harvey in fact
it's one of the subjects of the next
Anthropocene reviewed can we get more
frequent episodes of the Anthropocene
reviewed alas it takes an entire month
for me to write one what do you think of
people who still write first in the
comment section of videos in 2019 I
think it's great actually I like any
tradition that isn't offensive and can
survive for 12 years online in fact
check out the first comment of this
video is getting a liberal arts degree
useless I mean I suppose it depends on
what you think the point of life is but
from my perspective no I mean I studied
English and religious
and look at me sitting here in a
basement talking to a camera if you want
to maximize your lifetime income then
you probably shouldn't get over for arts
degree but I don't think that's the only
metric by which the quality of a human
life can be judged can you talk about
the Turtles all the way down movie yes I
wrote a book called Turtles all the way
down and now it's being made into a
movie hopefully and Hanna Marx has been
hired as the director and she is so
wonderful and I'm not just saying that
because she often watches these videos
do you still eat cereal with water yes
and it is still delicious and I refuse
to be shamed for my watery cereal I
think it's weird that all of you people
drink your cereal with cow juice what
advice would you give yourself 12 years
ago when you started vlogbrothers I did
the jump cuts a little bit tighter also
ridiculing someone else's worldview does
not make anything better that's still
advice I should give myself actually
what advice would you give your high
school self I would tell him that I know
it's hard and that he's doing okay and
that he is more loved than he knows and
also worthy of love and also I would
tell him to smoke fewer cigarettes I
have so little faith in humanity I have
seen so much pain how do I keep myself
from going completely apathetic you're
right that there is a lot of pain in the
world and I am sorry that you have seen
so much of it and I can't know or even
identify with your pain in particular
but I have felt despair in response to
pain and I have been pulled down deep by
that despair and I have found plenty of
justification for it but in the end I
believe that despair is simple and
humanity is complex there is cause for
despair but there is also cause for
other feelings I think we have to see
and listen to the pain but I also think
we have to see and listen to the joy and
the hope and the progress both in
individual lives and in our life as a
species and for me at least that is how
I escape the apathy trap Hank I'll see
you on Friday