good morning John in the year before my
book came out I became obsessed with the
idea that the science fiction world like
the community of people who write that
stuff and read that stuff would see me
as like an unwelcome youtuber interloper
that was the thing I was afraid of and
so I convinced myself that a very good
use of my time would be to read like 45
science fiction novels that way I could
tweet about the ones that I liked and
demonstrate that I cared about that
community but the thing is I do care
about that community and I love reading
science fiction novels so it was
actually just like a wonderful way for
me to spend time and there was a piece
of me that was just like so happy that I
had found a way to make doing this thing
that I love into something that felt
productive basically I turned reading
novels into work just like starting
VidCon meant that watching YouTube
videos was work and scishow made being
obsessed with science work and
vlogbrothers has made being really
interested in online communities work
and dear Hank and John has made being
done with my brother work or the
question then that I might should ask
myself is is this a good habit that I
can turn the things that I love into
work so that I can support my family and
work with amazing people and create
great Star is the root of it something a
little bit gross like that I'm trying to
justify my joy not just doing something
I love because I love it isn't enough I
need the cultural feedback of like
monetization to make it feel worthwhile
or productive that's a question that's
too big for one video maybe a question
that I wrote a whole book about so I'm
not gonna answer it right here though I
imagine that they're elements of both ah
John I don't think that you know how
important your perspective has been for
me in how I live my life I'm not humble
enough to pretend that I don't put off a
lot of energy for all your joking about
pooh-poohing on my ideas over the years
your energy added to mine but also the
focus you've given me I don't know what
I'd do without that I don't know what
I'd be without that back in 2011 when
YouTube was considering funding a bunch
of higher budget channels you and I had
the opportunity to pitch some ideas and
I recently uncovered a chat that we had
back then when we were trying to decide
what to pitch unsurprisingly I had come
up with like 12 different ideas
everything from like top 10 list shows
to like Pilates and I was jumping all
over the place mostly focusing on the
ideas that I thought were gonna get the
most views and here's the thing that you
said to me quote I don't inherently
agree with you but I want to do the
things that a change the world and be
YouTube will buy into so like for the
next three or four days I want to
concentrate on ideas that YouTube will
pay us for that will also change the
world and then I replied okay dftba
university then which is what we were at
that point calling crash course John I
have never had too few ideas but you
helped me realize that a good idea isn't
good
unless it's gonna do good and I'm so
happy to have found things like that
with you every pizza miss we get to
Commission amazing art from great
designers and we get to pay them for
that work I get to pay people to write
about science and educate people for
free I'm really excited to try something
new with truth or fail I'm so excited
about working with WNYC Studios on
podcast I'm very excited that this is
what the dear Hank and John website
looks like and on many evenings I get to
go home and uncover the absurd and vital
lives of fictional people who I love I
don't believe in these ideas cuz they're
good businesses I believe in them
because they are sustainable engines for
doing something good and also because
they bring me joy and if that means that
I don't know exactly where the line
between life and work is maybe that's
because like work is part of life so
John I like thank you and stuff but of
course it's also more than just me and
you doing this which is why every year
we do a census of nerdfighteria and it's
happening right now so that we can
better understand where we're all that
what we want and what we're gonna do
with this thing in the future the census
is live now we've shortened the census
significantly since last year as it was
getting way out of hand and I'm very
thankful to everybody who lends their
time to it everybody thank you for a
wonderful pizza miss it's coming to a
close so if you want some pizza missed
products dftba.com and john thank you
for everything and I'll see you on
Tuesday