Hi. You probably already know that Kurzgesagt made an animation of part of The Anthropocene Reviewed. But if you haven't seen it, it's lovely: ruclips.net/video/YbgnlkJPga4/видео.html Thanks for being here. -John
I recently saw the videos of John's Toast to Hank. (I really liked the idea of giving $992 in $ 1 bill. ) I am going to do something similar in the next wedding. Where is the other video. A toast to John by Hank.
John I have never been a religious person, I'm Jewish only culturally, but I would like to find a church. I think people find comfort in prayer and in belief, and I find comfort in being around those people. Do you have any tips on how to find a church that is currently holding services online? Thanks.
“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. ... You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.” John Green - A man who writes books.
@@vlogbrothers I think that there might be a tendency to make choices for (or imagine) the future based on nostalgia, thereby infusing it with nostalgia. Which could be problematic when it falls short.
@@JoRiver11 it made me think about "The Martian chronicles" by Ray Bradbury. When you read it these days opposed the reading it in the era it was written it's filled with nostalgia for the past and for the future simultaneously. New side of it's awesomeness!
On January 10, 2011, Hank posted a Vlogbrothers episode wherein he discusses his favorite conspiracy theories after mentioning a recent rise in bird deaths...maybe John ate chicken for breakfast...lots and lots of chicken. (yes I searched their 2011 vlogs for clues of what he may have eaten)
Okay - let's solve this! I figure there are 3 angles to approach this from: 1. Where was he living at the time? What supermarkets were nearest to him and which did he frequent the most? What was his level of cooking proficiency? During that month, was he likely to make a large breakfast or grab a granola bar? 2. Does he have access to an agenda/calendar that he kept back then? What was his work/home schedule like around this time? 3. Within the span of the week preceding January 10, 2011, what credit/debit card purchases did he make? Is he still a customer of that credit card company? If so, can they source a spending statement? Utilizing all of these, it'd be possible to make a highly educated guess about what he did, indeed, have for breakfast that day.
"The matrix I use to make those guesses has recently been like, obliterated" ...yes, those are the words I have been looking for to explain why I feel crippled with all decisions, even the decision of even what to eat for lunch each day.
“And then a Plank in Reason broke, and I dropped down, and down - And hit a World, at every plunge” - Emily Dickinson, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” Thank you for sharing this stanza. I just had a minor mental breakdown and I can’t believe how perfectly Dickinson describes that specific experience
In French, there are two words for the verb "to know". "Savoir" is used for things which are possible to memorize or know by heart (dates, facts, statistics, etc). "Connaître", on the other hand, is reserved for things that are impossible to know completely like people, places, or time periods.
The core meaning of "connaître" is "to be familiar/acquainted with", rather than "to have knowledge on something that is impossible to know completely". But now that you mention it, it's striking how the sort of targets/objects we use with "connaître" are those kind of complex things we aren't expected to fully understand. Maybe it shows that when we believe someone is too complex for most to fully understand, our communication focuses on whether we are at least familiar with it - whereas for other things, there is an open question about whether or not you have complete analytical understanding.
I love so much that the titles are in a long-term format, precisely during a time that uncertainty is omnipresent. Expecting this unimportant, actually kinda dumb lyric excerpt has become a source of comfort that I didn't even know it would be triggered.
When John said "I will never know what life is like for humans in the 22nd century" I got a rush of fear of my own mortality that I have never felt before. When I think "someday I will die" it does not freak me out, but thinking about the future of humanity and planet Earth and realizing that I will not get to share in that journey forever is deeply terrifying to me for some reason.
I feel this - but I wouldn't say that I'm terrified of not being a part of that journey, I'm just disappointed by it. I don't even necessarily want to live to see all of the future of mankind, because I'm sure there will be more very good times ahead but also more very bad times and I don't particularly want to live through all of those, but I do want to *know* about them, if only because I'm desperately curious. I wish that I could study the events of the future in the same way that I can study the past, because otherwise it feels like I've been forced to read a book but I'm prevented from ever reading the ending, and that's the worst thing. I need to know how it all turns out in the end!
If you're into psychology, you might look up the theory on terror management. It deals with the emotional and cognitive effects of knowing one is going to die eventually.
I read "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" when I was 14 and one quote stuck with me, either because I related to it, or because it made me think about something I hadn't thought about before, I'm not sure, but it goes: “Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.” Nothing makes me feel as sad, as impotent and vulnerable, as my facticity. There are so many impossibilities that come with my human condition; I have to somehow accept that the path I am given (and the path I've built, of course, within the parameters of possibility) is the only one I get to experience. Everything else will be blurry words and fluid images. This is the main cause for all my mental “turbulence.” So, yes, I relate.
Alexander Fleming, absolutely! I often feel comforted by that thought when I’m in nature, and I close my eyes... I think about how many people have felt almost the same thing as I’m feeling right there. I could be any of them. But then I open my eyes and the path narrows again because I am me. With my happinesses and my sorrows, me.
I don't really have anything to add here. I just want to say that the quote really struck a chord with me, and that both of your comments are lovely (albeit a bit sorrowful) to read. Thanks for sharing :)
I took French classes in high school, then had a couple of months of focused language training before going to live in France for a couple of years, and I still never became fluent … at least not enough for the French people to understand me. :/
When you said "prehistoric cave paintings" in this context, I gotta say, it's the first time I've ever really considered the word "prehistoric." It now seems like a really strange word. What is before history?
In history class in high school we learned that history is only after the invention of the written word. Before that it's archeology. (according to my History teacher, I don't know if it's an official definition)
As an archaeologist who studies the bronze age, I think that the best possible explanation of "prehistory" is that it's a made up concept which we use to split the past into understandable sizes. It's not so much that "prehistory" is strange, more that our focus on splitting the past into "history" and "before history" is strange.
History as a academic subject can only be studied through reading of historical sources and what people think about those sources after reading them and writing about them (which is called historiography)
John, remember when you jumped on that chair at VidCon and we were all trying to tell you not to--not because we didn't think you could do it, but because we thought the chair would slide and you would fall? It was a frustrating experience to be in that position and not be able to communicate something potentially important. You ended up landing the jump and the chair did not move, and only then did it quiet down enough for those of us with concerns to answer your question, "What did you think would go wrong?" I bring this up to say that that fear and frustration I felt as you began to leap towards the chair is how I feel today with this virus. I feel like the experts are yelling concerns into a mass of other voices and we are not hearing what we might need to hear. I was wrong about the chair. I'm glad I was wrong about the chair. And I hope I'm wrong about the response to the virus in the US. I hope the concerns are getting through to the people who need to hear them and that wise decisions will be made using those concerns. Until the future happens, though, I won't know. Time, right now, is like a pre-John Green chair jump. I can only hold my head in my hands and hope for the best.
I have been listening to Dear Hank and John episodes in reverse order. There is a weird reverse foreshadowing (backshadowing perhaps?) where I know what happens next week, but the version of you who recorded the podcast does not. I know the football stressor of the week actually ends really well and you are going to be so happy, but you don't. It has been giving me a weird sense of hope which is something I need greatly right now.
We know a lot of people are struggling with there mental health right now, and for nerdfighters following along, the next couple pages of More Light Than Heat: A Nerdfighter Gratitude Journal are live. Just a few minutes of gratitude each day has been a real help for a lot of us, and we hope it is for you.
"When I try to explain to people what uncontrolled mental illness feels like for me, I often say it's like having to get out of bed in the morning, and get dressed, and go through my day while feeling, that at literally every step, the floor might collapse beneath me." John, you've described my experience with OCD and depression perfectly. You have a way with words, and it's just so comforting to know that I'm not entirely alone in that fear of free falling. I guess what I'm trying to say is, your words made me feel less alone for a bit, and I want to thank you for that.
That's how I feel about the future. It's oblivious like part of the quote by helen keller from her autobiography, “Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in..." And no matter how much I plan about the future I want to live, I feel it's of no use until I have a firm ground in the present to stand on (which is very hard because I keep drifting away from my goals)
John, the way your describe mental illness is the only way I’ve heard that comes close to how it feels for me. Thank you so much for making me feel less alone.
*”...and we got very lucky. Or at least, I got very lucky.”* As a married person approaching our ninth anniversary, I feel this. We’re all just trying our best to make good guesses! ❤️
sarahgrin I hope this isn’t too forward, but marriage is really terrifying to me because I fear that eventually, no matter how much love there is at the start, all relationships are doomed. None thrive after years of being together just because you get used to each other and everything is boring. Is that true?
Mariyam Ahmed it’s not too forward :) of course every person is different and therefore every relationship is different. Yes, some things become less novel/exciting, but then there’s stability too. I didn’t think that would matter that much to me, but it turns out stability is sexy. I keep growing and changing and developing as a person, and so does my partner - when I was younger, I thought i would be completely done at some point, but that’s not true. The older I get the more I realize that love means choosing your person over and over, growing together. Love isn’t just a feeling. It changes and grows with you.
Also, every relationship is doomed in the way that all human beings are doomed. Memento mori etc. That statistic that “everyone knows” that half of marriages end in divorce is not true - most marriages end when one person in the relationship dies.
@@flynnflanfck Boy, oh boy, have I got a book for you about many people named Katherine :-) But yeah, boredom is good, because it is that slow down and ease that lets you be more of yourself with your partner and they with you. All the walls come down and you just exist as a person with this other person and it is weird and sometimes hard but... it is nice... because there is a deeper love that isn't based on just lust or romance, but the comfort of familiarity and the knowledge that they love you and you love them. But kids.... well "We're all just trying our best to make good guesses!" cause that is one hell of a rodeo.
@@flynnflanfck I'm pretty cynical and used to have the same train of thought. I met my (now) husband in 2006 and I honestly wasn't looking for "the one" or anything like that (I was only 20 at the time). It wasn't fireworks or love at first sight - was just a nice, comfortable relationship for us both following tumultuous relationships. We didn't get married until 2014 - it was honestly more of a practical decision because we were thinking about having kids. I got leukemia a few months later which put a wrench in whole kids thing, but I digress... I TRY not to dwell to much in the past or the future. Some anxiety about the future is unavoidable, but I've gotten good at combating it (when I had cancer I was forced to stop planning ahead, come to grips with how fragile life is, and just survive in the moment... oh, and lots of therapy). I feel lucky that both the person I've come to be and the person my husband has come to be are still compatible. I've made a grudging peace with the idea that might change one day and if it does, we'll cross the bridge when we get to it**. In the meantime, I think having a thirst for knowledge and new expierneces - and to encourage one another's passions (and it can be anything- for instance, my husband has really gotten into cooking and baking during quarantine... while I absolutely hate cooking and am only half listening to him ramble on about the science behind his new method of caramelizing onions - yet, I get to appreciate the meals and love to see him doing something he enjoys) is one of the best things you can do to avoid that feeling of boredom in a relationship. **And on that note, the idea of divorce or being widowed and then having to date again terrifies me, but there's a quote from the TV show Bones that has always stuck with me. When Angela's boyfriend dies, Brennan tells her she'll have another chance at love and Angela asks how she knows. Brennan replies: "Because nothing in this universe happens just once, Nothing. Infinity goes in both directions. There's no unique event, no singular moment."
I swear I thought, based on the description of this, that this video would be about the voice actor for Skeletor writing a book about a subject that John didn't know about and changed his life
Thank you! I have been ranting about misinformation and how what the "experts" are saying seems to be changing every time I turn around and how it is so hard to trust the leaders and experts and media right now and this helped stop the blame game in my head and allow me to place my need to know in perspective with how we come to know. Thank you so much!
Maybe the words of Asimov will help with understanding the uncertainty of our guesses: chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm Science is the process of becoming progressively less wrong, and we're getting to see that process in action, including a lot of the guesses that get tried before we find out what's true. The problem with differentiating "experts" from experts is a separate issue, and sadly it can be difficult especially when there is a social and political climate that allows such lies to thrive and spread, both intentionally and unintentionally.
Joseph Davies process of becoming less wrong is wonderfully worded and the reading you provided is great! The historic examples it provides also puts the speed at which our researchers are providing additional/new information in perspective. Thank you so much. I also appreciate how this platform and this forum allows people to come together and at least see the social and political aspects through each other’s perspective lens.
The fact that you guys are able to keep up the smash mouth titles even on super serious videos like this is just amazing. I really hope these titles keep on coming and they don't stop coming.
“The past is sort of like the future” is a philosophically important insight. All we have access to is the present, and both the past and the future are only “known” (to the extent they are at all) by extrapolating information in the present. There are multiple possible pasts consistent with the present, just like there are multiple possible futures.
The uncertainty of this pandemic has, in a weird way, and only sometimes, made my anxiety feel better because feeling clueless and scared about the future actually seems extremely justified and rational now haha
RIGHT? It's been so comforting to hear constant daily assurances that I'm not alone in not knowing what day of the week it is, what's going to happen tomorrow, etc. and to actually have other people express that they're afraid they might not make it if they picked up COVID.
I also have anxiety and have also been feeling better lately. I think having anxiety in “normal” situations has prepared me. And, also a lot of my “normal” anxiety relates to me feeling like I can’t control things I *should* be able to. No one is able to control this, so I feel better.
Wow I relate to all these replies so much! I didn’t know other people felt the same way. It’s almost like the rest of the world gets to experience the stress and anxiety we experience everyday. I also feel like my anxiety has prepared me for actual stressful situations because I already know how to function under what I perceive to be extreme stress.
Keeping it up with the Smash Mouth titles!! Thanks for the great video John especially the bit on Mental health. You continue to help me better understand my friends and family who struggle with mental illness.
I didn't fully read the title and didn't realise it was an All Star lyric until you said it in the video. I don't know how you consistently explore such poignant topics through the words of smash mouth
When I studied history at uni, I liked to think about our knowledge of the past like a court discussing a crime which has taken place. There is evidence which can be retrieved but never re-enacted, there are witness accounts, there are matters that are of great moral significance. Even if we can never be 100% sure, most of the time it is a good idea to make a judgement based on the evidence we do have. For that reason I wouldn't call history 'speculation' but more informed and intelligent human judgements.
John, this is the first video I have seen that’s truly comforted me about this pandemic, and I didn’t even know I needed to be comforted right now. Thanks.
I'm a new nerdfighter of a few months so I've been binge watching vlogbrothers and Hank and John's separate channels and so far I've seen so many videos of them gushing over how much they love their wives and that makes me extremely happy
Ok. That was really hard to watch. I could see how hard it was to film. Thank you for sharing this moment. You and Hank have always felt like family I never met and I hope you find more peace in the times ahead.
This feels very on the nose for me, a person who is trying to make decisions about higher education without knowing what higher education will look like in the next few months. Make the best possible guesses- thank you John, that is the first piece of genuinely comforting advice I've had so far :)
just wanted to say i am grateful for your constant grounding presence. never pretending to be sure but validating and putting words to our un-sure-ness, and making it feel okay. thanks.
Thank You for Talking About your Anxiety. I have been a Mess since Week 3 of the Massachusetts shutdown, details unpleasant, unnecessary, agonizing, and nearly crippling. My friends have been INCREDIBLY supportive, but don't seem to be experiencing the situation the same way. Hearing someone voice their own feeling that the floor is falling out from under them is more helpful then you could know. Again, Thank You.
Recently I've been finding myself grappling with what is unknowable, and what is knowable with some (much) effort, and at what point the effort to know is justified. Has anyone else been feeling this way?
As this is the main focus of my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I find my self thinking about it almost constantly. I think about what I don't know and what I want to know. I become terrified upon realizing that knowing more will lead to me knowing less in relation to all that I envision myself being able to know. I wonder if knowing is even practical when we don't know how we developed human logic to begin with, or how we know there is ant sort of truth in it, or if it's merely one of infinite forms of computation the universe could have devised. And then I must remind myself of what John is saying; we can never know all that we want to know. We are here because we made informed decisions in the past that led to us knowing a tiiiiiiny bit more about the present. And here we are again, we must make some more informed decisions and hopefully be smarter than we were yesterday. (I also must remind myself that obsessing over the unknown in ways which produce health-complicating amounts of stress and terror is a symptom of a mental illness, and treating that is another informed decision we must make). Your comment is extremely relatable!! As humans with wants and needs and emotions, I hope we can both justify our desire to know by our desire to help and protect the things and the people we love. I think for us the purpose of knowing is to do good in the world. Even if we don't truly know, we can make REAL change in our lives by making the informed decisions we do, so there's always a justification for learning and adapting and sharing knowledge. At least that's how I see it :)
I used to watch Vlogbrothers religiously from Fall 2013 (when I discovered Crash Course History on a lazy Saturday) until Summer 2016, and then I stopped for no reason (or a reason that no longer matters to me, since I can't even remember it). This is the first Vlogbrothers video that I've seen in nearly 4 years (referred here from In a Nutshell's recent video, which also popped up on my feed after not watching them for 2.5 years), and this kind of video was exactly why I started watching them in the first place - these helped me during my coming of age (I was born in 2000!), helping to form me into who I am today. Thank you, John and Hank Green, for your insights into your own lives, because they help illuminate our own lives
Thanks for talking so openly about your OCD experience, John. As someone walking on that floor with you, I can tell you that your honesty gives other people comfort and hope.
For a person with OCD symptoms, not knowing is the root of most of my fears. Sometimes, speculations and predictions are not the healthiest in the world. Realizing this and making peace with it helps me to get through the day
so, here in australia we are coming out of the other side of this pandemic. life here still has its restrictions, but the other day i got to hug and run around with my friends, and i just wanted to say to those still living in the middle of this, it will get better. maybe not today or tomorrow or even next month, but at some point it will. and honestly the hug i got from my friends made all of this worth it. so i hope that you will get that moment in the near future.
I truly cannot think of a better metaphor for mental illness, the issues is that every moment feels uncertain. I can’t decide to assume that the floor ahead of me will for sure collapse or to try to ignore the loose planks altogether.
I cannot express how glad I am that you two exist and that I found you. You two have always helped put the world into perspective and helped me navigate that world either by seeing it in a different way or learning to lean on each other and help one another as best we can. Thank you, thank you, thank you. A thousand times I can say thank you, and it won't be enough. Honestly and truly, thank you for this and everything.
I've watched you for so long and never knew about your mental health challenges(anxiety from the sound of it). Thanks so much for being transparent about that. As a fellow creator dealing with not-always-so-fun brain conditions(depression, occasionally anxiety), I always feel some solidarity and encouragement seeing people being successful with their work and living their best life possible in spite of personal challenges.
I’ve been in a writing slump for the past two days. Yesterday I had two words written down, “The unknown”. And now I hear you talking about the unknown. I swear you always inspire me to keep writing. Your thoughts and the way you manage to put them into words is brilliant. Thank you Mr Green!
I've been watching you for years. Your candor and clarity of delivery are wonderful to view, and you consistently give me new things to consider. Your counterpoint to your brother (and his to yours) often bring a certain joy of thoughtfulness to some very difficult things. To make a long message short . . . Thank you.
"Down and down, hitting a world at every plunge." Very apt. Not a great day today, but having the right words makes the uncertainty of those worlds more manageable.
Interesting topic. I like how you circled around the idea of uncertainty and what we don't know, because I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I've realized how abjectly terrified we get about uncertainty - our brains like everything to be certain and known and simple. But the world isn't certain and known and simple, and right now we're experiencing a peak of uncertainty. Instead of chasing certainty, I'm trying to embrace uncertainty. I've been on a big stoicism kick in the last year, and it has helped a lot. "We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." Not to diminish the very real suffering out there, but a lot of people are suffering prematurely over what MAY happen and has not yet.
Hang tough, John! Lots of people are rooting for you, praying for you & sending you positive thoughts & energy. As one who has mental illness, I appreciate your vulnerability and transparency. You are appreciated & loved. You got this. Just keep being you.
Hey! We're doing a DFTBA-themed gratitude-journal. If you're interested or just like to chat with other Nerdfighters, I'll send you a Discord Invite :)
I find it comforting when people admit what they do not know and are working toward knowing. It's odd, but that's one of the things that has comforted me about the scientists in charge of the response to the pandemic. They don't have all the answers, but they are committed to finding out. That commitment to the search for answers comforts me, even with my anxiety issues. I wish more leaders could be upfront about these things.
Thank you SO MUCH for the way you brought this to a conclusion. Just by stating that we are making better guesses and learning more, and that we will eventually KNOW much of what we don't now know, you have quieted much of the panicked screaming in my head.
I can’t help but feel as though you are describing hope. Hope that the floor will still be there, now in real time as you are walking and later once you get to wherever it is you’re going.
The extra unpredictability of the future right now is most certainly the hardest part of this. I've been so excited to start grad school this fall and I've been accepted to a few programs. It's scary not knowing if the program will begin in person and not being sure it's worth starting the program if it will be online. But waiting another year seems equally torturous... this is just my food for thought and I am constantly reminding myself that every single human alive right now is also dealing with this very unique (and also not so uniqu) period of history. Keep on keeping on lovlies.
I really liked this. It's true, we're guessing all the time. And it's easier to make a guess when we feel more secure, but having things shaken up means that we still need to make guesses while learning as we go. Eventually, our guesses will be informed by experience, and we'll find ourselves in a position of better security again. We just have to keep taking one step after the other.
understanding how to deal with uncertainty, both my irrational uncertainties and the current events, is, ironically the most certain thing in my day to day life. there's no such thing as maybe to my ocd and i imagine to many others with mental illnesses, so solidarity, friends. stay well and if that is too hard right now, at least stay well enough for the moment.
I've also been having a very difficult time with the current pandemic, my own mental illness makes daily tasks and chores much more difficult than they should feel. Let alone the struggle to go outside and be among other people (thanks social anxiety) compounding now that this dangerous virus is out there. So much changed so suddenly and I had already been trying to cope with grief and loss BEFORE this happened, I can only try and get through each day to learn just a little more about the world tomorrow.
Hi John - thank you so much for this video, and all of your videos really! I'm a teacher from the UK and I have loved your videos for years... I always show my students crash course clips, and clips of you and hank discussing important ideas that I can't articulate at 2:35pm after a full day of teaching 😅 once again, you articulated here a series of things I've been feeling, and I just want to say thank you. Your videos and Hank's videos are timeless, and I hope you continue making them until the 22nd century.
John, I’m very happy to have come across your first TikTok last night. I feel like if there was going to be a social media that you might enjoy again without the pain of being overwhelmed by the bad scrolling that we experience on other platforms (*cough* Twitter *cough*), it would be TikTok. Glad you’re here on the RUclips and in other video formats.
Wait. Can we take a moment for how cute John's comment of "we got lucky. Well at least I got lucky" I did the little awwwwww noise people do to puppies 😚 i love when people are in long term happy relationships!! Ya dont hear about them often so it made me happy! :)
This video both explains the limitations and important of my profession (historian of medicine) in four minutes. I have trouble doing that over a semester of lectures. Thank you John Green :)
I've read books about times through which I lived. It is amazing how the chaos transforms into narrative under the light of hindsight. There will be a lot to learn about this in coming.
Hey, I just wanted to let people know that in the subtitles for the video, Covid is spelled kovat throughout. I’m unsure of how one would go about to work to change that for future listeners/ readers but thought that I’d put this bit of info in the comments so that it might make its way to the right people!
I'm reminded of how sometimes people (used to) say "I just want to be better at living in the moment, and enjoying everything around me" and suddenly, it seems like that's all we have, since the future is so strangely uncertain. It makes it easier, at least to me, to appreciate the not-so-small things, like being outside in the sunshine, or listening to birds, or great poems. Thanks for your thoughts, John!
Speaking of future, past and present, there is this series called 'Dark' which I absolutely love and has really made me think about how we 'survive' the time rather than 'live' through it.
Sounds to me like one of the sanest analyses of the current situation on social media. I'm old enough to remember an early kids tv show called Maggie Muggins. I was very young for philosophy at the time, but every show ended with Maggie recapping what had happened on the episode, and finishing with "and I don't know what will happen tomorrow". None of us do ~ but I like that your didn't refer to that as a "crap shoot". Pls continue to be awesome yourself, John.
What you said about the floor disappearing out from under you resonates with me in my own struggles to be well. Every second is a mountain that must be climbed and I can't even fucking walk any more. My world is a terrible nightmare at its core & nobody sees it because its shell is lackluster & deceptively unremarkable. I'm too good a person to expose those around me to the mayhem so i suffer and wait for it to... anything. All it actually does is get worse. I take comfort in simple acts of human goodness, though, John Green, and thus the Green brothers are worth every click i throw & more. You guys have accomplished so much and with so much class. Our species has had this societal stress test coming for a long time and the changes we make to our world to keep us safe from Covid-19 will absolutely protect us again and again and again forevermore. This shit is actually making us stronger. Think about it: how many non-covid infections has social distancing prevented already? How is the flu doing lately? Idk honestly but i'd bet money that transmission of it worldwide has slowed to a crawl when compared to how it always was. I hope your floor remains traversable Mr. Green and wish you the finest of journeys atop it
I work in mental health care and it is really hard during Covid-19 times. I try to be a solid floor for my patients that they can rely on, but I feel like an earthquake has shaken my own floor since March. But I still try to stay strong and keep my balance.
realizing the quantity of knowledge you will never have makes you, I think, a more compassionate person. you stop presuming to know what another person's problems or motivations are, and start listening.
Hi. You probably already know that Kurzgesagt made an animation of part of The Anthropocene Reviewed. But if you haven't seen it, it's lovely: ruclips.net/video/YbgnlkJPga4/видео.html
Thanks for being here. -John
Really loved the slow voice over, after listening to so many crash courses.
The ending gave me that awesome "oh *wow*" feeling you get when understanding comes crashing down, all at once. Just beautiful.
I recently saw the videos of John's Toast to Hank. (I really liked the idea of giving $992 in $ 1 bill. ) I am going to do something similar in the next wedding.
Where is the other video.
A toast to John by Hank.
John I have never been a religious person, I'm Jewish only culturally, but I would like to find a church. I think people find comfort in prayer and in belief, and I find comfort in being around those people. Do you have any tips on how to find a church that is currently holding services online? Thanks.
are you just going to ignore the fact you have a tik tok now?
I’ve only ever seen photos of skeletor and wow I did not expect THAT voice
The voice is 99% of the fun of Skeletor! -John
ruclips.net/video/32FB-gYr49Y/видео.html
I didnt realize the voice everyone used for Papyrus in Undertale was 100% based on Skeletor
Michelle F omg it does sound like papyrus from Dan and phils undertale let’s play
@@Montyjones680 And like Ross's version from the Game Grumps, and like Jacksepticeye's 😂
John still crushing on his wife is one of the purest things ever.
Feliciya honestly I didn’t think it was possible for that to be the case after so many years of marriage... it inspires me!!!
The smile on John's face when he said "Or at least... I got very likely" - was adorable. Yup.
It's "I got luck" tho
@@pedrolmlkzk it's "I got very lucky" tho
@@GuilhermeHarrison exactly, my brain made a bad one
John reached HUSBAND GOALS
+++
“Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia. ... You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.”
John Green - A man who writes books.
On the topic of marriage, "Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia" is something Sarah said to me when we were dating! -John
@@vlogbrothers I think that there might be a tendency to make choices for (or imagine) the future based on nostalgia, thereby infusing it with nostalgia. Which could be problematic when it falls short.
@@JoRiver11 it made me think about "The Martian chronicles" by Ray Bradbury. When you read it these days opposed the reading it in the era it was written it's filled with nostalgia for the past and for the future simultaneously. New side of it's awesomeness!
+
I love looking for Alaska
What did John eat for breakfast on January 10, 2011 is the biggest question to grace all of mankind
probably cereal with water
Ohrwein yummy
@@ohrwein7154 Everything bagel with cream cheese.
On January 10, 2011, Hank posted a Vlogbrothers episode wherein he discusses his favorite conspiracy theories after mentioning a recent rise in bird deaths...maybe John ate chicken for breakfast...lots and lots of chicken.
(yes I searched their 2011 vlogs for clues of what he may have eaten)
Okay - let's solve this! I figure there are 3 angles to approach this from:
1. Where was he living at the time? What supermarkets were nearest to him and which did he frequent the most? What was his level of cooking proficiency? During that month, was he likely to make a large breakfast or grab a granola bar?
2. Does he have access to an agenda/calendar that he kept back then? What was his work/home schedule like around this time?
3. Within the span of the week preceding January 10, 2011, what credit/debit card purchases did he make? Is he still a customer of that credit card company? If so, can they source a spending statement?
Utilizing all of these, it'd be possible to make a highly educated guess about what he did, indeed, have for breakfast that day.
Or in other words from all star lyrics: "My world's on fire, how 'bout yours?"
This one is already from all star lyrics: "You'll never know if you don't go
/ You'll never shine if you don't glow"
@@PacifyKing Oh phew! I was worried for a second.
@@sarahprunierlaw9147 Right?! I wanna see them keep going with the titles at least til all the good lines are gone haha
@@PacifyKing Yep
@@PacifyKing "good" lines, yeah...
Like any line in All Star is bad.
"The matrix I use to make those guesses has recently been like, obliterated" ...yes, those are the words I have been looking for to explain why I feel crippled with all decisions, even the decision of even what to eat for lunch each day.
+
"We don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents."
I can so relate to that-
That's a symptom of depression. You should have that checked out if it doesn't subside.
*If you don't go! You'll never shine if you don't glow.* Honestly I'm gonna be sad when the lyric titles end
Hopefully they will never end🙏🏻
Hopefully they will reverse word order to create new titles
I want them to go on forever but I know they have to run out
@@richardthomson5817 oh my gosh imagine a language where you can only use the words from All Star!
Also could make a fun party game.
I forgot it was an all star lyric lmaooo
“I’ll never know what life will be like in the 22nd century.”
John Green living until 150 is happening.
Yes. He may see life extension technology come to pass. So it is possible.
That made me sad to hear. Even though I know we won't be around I'm sad to realize all the things we'll never see.
@@rainydaylady6596 You never know if you *will* be able to see things in the next century.
I'm not even sure I would want to! -John
@@vlogbrothers But what if you could just randomly pop back into existence every few decades to see what has been going on in your absence?
“And then a Plank in Reason broke, and I dropped down, and down - And hit a World, at every plunge”
- Emily Dickinson, “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”
Thank you for sharing this stanza. I just had a minor mental breakdown and I can’t believe how perfectly Dickinson describes that specific experience
‘Wrecked, solitary, here -‘
describes my entire experience recently
exactly!
This was me in the previous 2 months. That's such an appropriate descriptor of everything that's falling apart in the world today.
In French, there are two words for the verb "to know". "Savoir" is used for things which are possible to memorize or know by heart (dates, facts, statistics, etc). "Connaître", on the other hand, is reserved for things that are impossible to know completely like people, places, or time periods.
Saber, conocer in spanish
That is so interesting, thank you for sharing!
The core meaning of "connaître" is "to be familiar/acquainted with", rather than "to have knowledge on something that is impossible to know completely". But now that you mention it, it's striking how the sort of targets/objects we use with "connaître" are those kind of complex things we aren't expected to fully understand. Maybe it shows that when we believe someone is too complex for most to fully understand, our communication focuses on whether we are at least familiar with it - whereas for other things, there is an open question about whether or not you have complete analytical understanding.
@@ChronoSoul that is so interesting. Vlogbrothers comment threads are always the best 👌
I love so much that the titles are in a long-term format, precisely during a time that uncertainty is omnipresent. Expecting this unimportant, actually kinda dumb lyric excerpt has become a source of comfort that I didn't even know it would be triggered.
Thank you for that comment! Although I'm not into the song, this idea was comforting for me unconsciously, now it's comforting consciously :)
I have an online exam tomorrow and someone did write a book on all the things I'll never know. it's my script.
best of luck!
bhawani banerjee thanks love! I know it's a minor thing to worry about these days but I appreciate it!
Good luck 🍀
@@biancar5763 No worries! I just completed my own online exams today so I know how these things can be daunting.
bhawani banerjee yee! congrats!
When John said "I will never know what life is like for humans in the 22nd century" I got a rush of fear of my own mortality that I have never felt before. When I think "someday I will die" it does not freak me out, but thinking about the future of humanity and planet Earth and realizing that I will not get to share in that journey forever is deeply terrifying to me for some reason.
I feel this - but I wouldn't say that I'm terrified of not being a part of that journey, I'm just disappointed by it. I don't even necessarily want to live to see all of the future of mankind, because I'm sure there will be more very good times ahead but also more very bad times and I don't particularly want to live through all of those, but I do want to *know* about them, if only because I'm desperately curious. I wish that I could study the events of the future in the same way that I can study the past, because otherwise it feels like I've been forced to read a book but I'm prevented from ever reading the ending, and that's the worst thing. I need to know how it all turns out in the end!
@@Etheliajumper I feel this and although I'm bad about finishing things I always finish the book
There's a word in German for that fear
If you're into psychology, you might look up the theory on terror management. It deals with the emotional and cognitive effects of knowing one is going to die eventually.
You know what scares me more than the thought of dying, the thought of living forever.
I read "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" when I was 14 and one quote stuck with me, either because I related to it, or because it made me think about something I hadn't thought about before, I'm not sure, but it goes: “Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.”
Nothing makes me feel as sad, as impotent and vulnerable, as my facticity. There are so many impossibilities that come with my human condition; I have to somehow accept that the path I am given (and the path I've built, of course, within the parameters of possibility) is the only one I get to experience. Everything else will be blurry words and fluid images. This is the main cause for all my mental “turbulence.”
So, yes, I relate.
Alexander Fleming, absolutely! I often feel comforted by that thought when I’m in nature, and I close my eyes... I think about how many people have felt almost the same thing as I’m feeling right there. I could be any of them. But then I open my eyes and the path narrows again because I am me. With my happinesses and my sorrows, me.
I don't really have anything to add here. I just want to say that the quote really struck a chord with me, and that both of your comments are lovely (albeit a bit sorrowful) to read. Thanks for sharing :)
I immediately sang through all of All Star in my head because I didn't recognize the title as a lyric and was SHOCKED 😂
Same
Me too lol
Now we're all looking kind of dumb...
hahaha I DID TOO xD
I had to look up the lyrics and I felt like a fraud
I mean, you still could know what being fluent in french is like...
There's our optimist!
Mmmm, nah. :) -John
I took French classes in high school, then had a couple of months of focused language training before going to live in France for a couple of years, and I still never became fluent … at least not enough for the French people to understand me. :/
@@trevinbeattie4888 Damn u dumb.
French person here. Don't worry, you're not missing out that much.
When you said "prehistoric cave paintings" in this context, I gotta say, it's the first time I've ever really considered the word "prehistoric." It now seems like a really strange word. What is before history?
I think prehistory is defined as “before written records”.
In history class in high school we learned that history is only after the invention of the written word. Before that it's archeology. (according to my History teacher, I don't know if it's an official definition)
As an archaeologist who studies the bronze age, I think that the best possible explanation of "prehistory" is that it's a made up concept which we use to split the past into understandable sizes. It's not so much that "prehistory" is strange, more that our focus on splitting the past into "history" and "before history" is strange.
@@tobiasheal ++
History as a academic subject can only be studied through reading of historical sources and what people think about those sources after reading them and writing about them (which is called historiography)
John, remember when you jumped on that chair at VidCon and we were all trying to tell you not to--not because we didn't think you could do it, but because we thought the chair would slide and you would fall? It was a frustrating experience to be in that position and not be able to communicate something potentially important. You ended up landing the jump and the chair did not move, and only then did it quiet down enough for those of us with concerns to answer your question, "What did you think would go wrong?" I bring this up to say that that fear and frustration I felt as you began to leap towards the chair is how I feel today with this virus. I feel like the experts are yelling concerns into a mass of other voices and we are not hearing what we might need to hear. I was wrong about the chair. I'm glad I was wrong about the chair. And I hope I'm wrong about the response to the virus in the US. I hope the concerns are getting through to the people who need to hear them and that wise decisions will be made using those concerns. Until the future happens, though, I won't know. Time, right now, is like a pre-John Green chair jump. I can only hold my head in my hands and hope for the best.
sarty That was very well said, thank you for sharing
+
+
+
Perhaps the BEST RUclips comment I've read in.........? Thank you.
"or at least I got very lucky." Aww my heart ❤️
Hey, uh, John... are we going to talk about the fact that you got a tic tok or are we just going to just.... not
Just wondering
Wait what
waaa?
I mean, he had to know Tuataria would find it? 😂
+
I have been listening to Dear Hank and John episodes in reverse order. There is a weird reverse foreshadowing (backshadowing perhaps?) where I know what happens next week, but the version of you who recorded the podcast does not. I know the football stressor of the week actually ends really well and you are going to be so happy, but you don't. It has been giving me a weird sense of hope which is something I need greatly right now.
We know a lot of people are struggling with there mental health right now, and for nerdfighters following along, the next couple pages of More Light Than Heat: A Nerdfighter Gratitude Journal are live. Just a few minutes of gratitude each day has been a real help for a lot of us, and we hope it is for you.
For anyone who's confused, there has been a secret project to make a nerdfighter gratitude Journal
Great idea!
the journal has been really helpful in keeping me sane in this time, thank you so much for making it
+
also i love how you just unabashedly stole John's name
The titles start coming and don’t stop coming... (and I wouldn’t have it any other way).
"When I try to explain to people what uncontrolled mental illness feels like for me, I often say it's like having to get out of bed in the morning, and get dressed, and go through my day while feeling, that at literally every step, the floor might collapse beneath me."
John, you've described my experience with OCD and depression perfectly. You have a way with words, and it's just so comforting to know that I'm not entirely alone in that fear of free falling. I guess what I'm trying to say is, your words made me feel less alone for a bit, and I want to thank you for that.
I feel the same way, and double thanks to your comment. Thank you, repellomuggle 😊.
@@christinastanley3938 awww, right back at ya!
@@repellomuggletumify ^.^
That's how I feel about the future. It's oblivious like part of the quote by helen keller from her autobiography, “Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in..." And no matter how much I plan about the future I want to live, I feel it's of no use until I have a firm ground in the present to stand on (which is very hard because I keep drifting away from my goals)
John, the way your describe mental illness is the only way I’ve heard that comes close to how it feels for me. Thank you so much for making me feel less alone.
*”...and we got very lucky. Or at least, I got very lucky.”*
As a married person approaching our ninth anniversary, I feel this. We’re all just trying our best to make good guesses! ❤️
sarahgrin I hope this isn’t too forward, but marriage is really terrifying to me because I fear that eventually, no matter how much love there is at the start, all relationships are doomed. None thrive after years of being together just because you get used to each other and everything is boring. Is that true?
Mariyam Ahmed it’s not too forward :) of course every person is different and therefore every relationship is different. Yes, some things become less novel/exciting, but then there’s stability too. I didn’t think that would matter that much to me, but it turns out stability is sexy. I keep growing and changing and developing as a person, and so does my partner - when I was younger, I thought i would be completely done at some point, but that’s not true. The older I get the more I realize that love means choosing your person over and over, growing together. Love isn’t just a feeling. It changes and grows with you.
Also, every relationship is doomed in the way that all human beings are doomed. Memento mori etc. That statistic that “everyone knows” that half of marriages end in divorce is not true - most marriages end when one person in the relationship dies.
@@flynnflanfck Boy, oh boy, have I got a book for you about many people named Katherine :-) But yeah, boredom is good, because it is that slow down and ease that lets you be more of yourself with your partner and they with you. All the walls come down and you just exist as a person with this other person and it is weird and sometimes hard but... it is nice... because there is a deeper love that isn't based on just lust or romance, but the comfort of familiarity and the knowledge that they love you and you love them. But kids.... well "We're all just trying our best to make good guesses!" cause that is one hell of a rodeo.
@@flynnflanfck I'm pretty cynical and used to have the same train of thought. I met my (now) husband in 2006 and I honestly wasn't looking for "the one" or anything like that (I was only 20 at the time). It wasn't fireworks or love at first sight - was just a nice, comfortable relationship for us both following tumultuous relationships. We didn't get married until 2014 - it was honestly more of a practical decision because we were thinking about having kids. I got leukemia a few months later which put a wrench in whole kids thing, but I digress... I TRY not to dwell to much in the past or the future. Some anxiety about the future is unavoidable, but I've gotten good at combating it (when I had cancer I was forced to stop planning ahead, come to grips with how fragile life is, and just survive in the moment... oh, and lots of therapy). I feel lucky that both the person I've come to be and the person my husband has come to be are still compatible. I've made a grudging peace with the idea that might change one day and if it does, we'll cross the bridge when we get to it**. In the meantime, I think having a thirst for knowledge and new expierneces - and to encourage one another's passions (and it can be anything- for instance, my husband has really gotten into cooking and baking during quarantine... while I absolutely hate cooking and am only half listening to him ramble on about the science behind his new method of caramelizing onions - yet, I get to appreciate the meals and love to see him doing something he enjoys) is one of the best things you can do to avoid that feeling of boredom in a relationship.
**And on that note, the idea of divorce or being widowed and then having to date again terrifies me, but there's a quote from the TV show Bones that has always stuck with me. When Angela's boyfriend dies, Brennan tells her she'll have another chance at love and Angela asks how she knows. Brennan replies: "Because nothing in this universe happens just once, Nothing. Infinity goes in both directions. There's no unique event, no singular moment."
I swear I thought, based on the description of this, that this video would be about the voice actor for Skeletor writing a book about a subject that John didn't know about and changed his life
I needed to hear this, thank you! Being understood while you don't even understand yourself is probably the best feeling accessible for me right now.
Thank you! I have been ranting about misinformation and how what the "experts" are saying seems to be changing every time I turn around and how it is so hard to trust the leaders and experts and media right now and this helped stop the blame game in my head and allow me to place my need to know in perspective with how we come to know. Thank you so much!
Maybe the words of Asimov will help with understanding the uncertainty of our guesses: chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
Science is the process of becoming progressively less wrong, and we're getting to see that process in action, including a lot of the guesses that get tried before we find out what's true.
The problem with differentiating "experts" from experts is a separate issue, and sadly it can be difficult especially when there is a social and political climate that allows such lies to thrive and spread, both intentionally and unintentionally.
Joseph Davies process of becoming less wrong is wonderfully worded and the reading you provided is great! The historic examples it provides also puts the speed at which our researchers are providing additional/new information in perspective. Thank you so much. I also appreciate how this platform and this forum allows people to come together and at least see the social and political aspects through each other’s perspective lens.
@@sarahthomison3295 You're welcome!
Gaining new and wider perspectives is a gift. :)
I've found that my anxiety caused by memory loss is very similar to the anxiety I feel towards the future. It's the fear of not knowing either way
John: so skeletor got me thinking
He really did though.
The fact that you guys are able to keep up the smash mouth titles even on super serious videos like this is just amazing. I really hope these titles keep on coming and they don't stop coming.
I really thought at some point in this video John would say “You’ll never know if you don’t go”
“The past is sort of like the future” is a philosophically important insight. All we have access to is the present, and both the past and the future are only “known” (to the extent they are at all) by extrapolating information in the present. There are multiple possible pasts consistent with the present, just like there are multiple possible futures.
love this so much, such an interesting thought
The vlogbrothers: extracting meaning out of whimsical things since 2007.
Vlogbrothers has been a constant in my life for over 13 years now. I love this channel and all of the work you do outside of it. Thank you.
It’s crazy how John describes exactly how I’m feeling without me even understanding that feeling myself, it’s the validation that I need.
Yeah his description of not trusting the floor hit me like a ton of bricks
icky thump 800000 omg I know that was too relatable I felt attacked in the best way 😂😂😂
The uncertainty of this pandemic has, in a weird way, and only sometimes, made my anxiety feel better because feeling clueless and scared about the future actually seems extremely justified and rational now haha
I also struggle with anxiety and am feeling better lately. I finally feel as if I'm "normal", as if my anxiety levels are actually reasonable
RIGHT? It's been so comforting to hear constant daily assurances that I'm not alone in not knowing what day of the week it is, what's going to happen tomorrow, etc. and to actually have other people express that they're afraid they might not make it if they picked up COVID.
I also have anxiety and have also been feeling better lately. I think having anxiety in “normal” situations has prepared me. And, also a lot of my “normal” anxiety relates to me feeling like I can’t control things I *should* be able to. No one is able to control this, so I feel better.
Wow I relate to all these replies so much! I didn’t know other people felt the same way. It’s almost like the rest of the world gets to experience the stress and anxiety we experience everyday. I also feel like my anxiety has prepared me for actual stressful situations because I already know how to function under what I perceive to be extreme stress.
The more you know the more you don’t know.
The more you know, the more you realize what you don't know.
And knowing you don't know is half the battle
Keeping it up with the Smash Mouth titles!! Thanks for the great video John especially the bit on Mental health. You continue to help me better understand my friends and family who struggle with mental illness.
I didn't fully read the title and didn't realise it was an All Star lyric until you said it in the video. I don't know how you consistently explore such poignant topics through the words of smash mouth
When I studied history at uni, I liked to think about our knowledge of the past like a court discussing a crime which has taken place. There is evidence which can be retrieved but never re-enacted, there are witness accounts, there are matters that are of great moral significance. Even if we can never be 100% sure, most of the time it is a good idea to make a judgement based on the evidence we do have. For that reason I wouldn't call history 'speculation' but more informed and intelligent human judgements.
John, this is the first video I have seen that’s truly comforted me about this pandemic, and I didn’t even know I needed to be comforted right now. Thanks.
I'm a new nerdfighter of a few months so I've been binge watching vlogbrothers and Hank and John's separate channels and so far I've seen so many videos of them gushing over how much they love their wives and that makes me extremely happy
I’m going to start calling all questions speculations. Because we can’t know.
Ok. That was really hard to watch. I could see how hard it was to film.
Thank you for sharing this moment. You and Hank have always felt like family I never met and I hope you find more peace in the times ahead.
This feels very on the nose for me, a person who is trying to make decisions about higher education without knowing what higher education will look like in the next few months. Make the best possible guesses- thank you John, that is the first piece of genuinely comforting advice I've had so far :)
just wanted to say i am grateful for your constant grounding presence. never pretending to be sure but validating and putting words to our un-sure-ness, and making it feel okay. thanks.
This was really comforting, particularly your thoughts on how we're watching expertise develop. Thank you ❤ Much love
Your explanation about what mental illness perfectly describes where I'm at with anxiety right now. Stay safe, John.
Thank You for Talking About your Anxiety. I have been a Mess since Week 3 of the Massachusetts shutdown, details unpleasant, unnecessary, agonizing, and nearly crippling. My friends have been INCREDIBLY supportive, but don't seem to be experiencing the situation the same way. Hearing someone voice their own feeling that the floor is falling out from under them is more helpful then you could know. Again, Thank You.
Recently I've been finding myself grappling with what is unknowable, and what is knowable with some (much) effort, and at what point the effort to know is justified. Has anyone else been feeling this way?
As this is the main focus of my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I find my self thinking about it almost constantly. I think about what I don't know and what I want to know. I become terrified upon realizing that knowing more will lead to me knowing less in relation to all that I envision myself being able to know. I wonder if knowing is even practical when we don't know how we developed human logic to begin with, or how we know there is ant sort of truth in it, or if it's merely one of infinite forms of computation the universe could have devised. And then I must remind myself of what John is saying; we can never know all that we want to know. We are here because we made informed decisions in the past that led to us knowing a tiiiiiiny bit more about the present. And here we are again, we must make some more informed decisions and hopefully be smarter than we were yesterday. (I also must remind myself that obsessing over the unknown in ways which produce health-complicating amounts of stress and terror is a symptom of a mental illness, and treating that is another informed decision we must make). Your comment is extremely relatable!! As humans with wants and needs and emotions, I hope we can both justify our desire to know by our desire to help and protect the things and the people we love. I think for us the purpose of knowing is to do good in the world. Even if we don't truly know, we can make REAL change in our lives by making the informed decisions we do, so there's always a justification for learning and adapting and sharing knowledge. At least that's how I see it :)
This is so very true - it's hard to accept that knowing, even incomplete knowing, takes work and takes time.
I used to watch Vlogbrothers religiously from Fall 2013 (when I discovered Crash Course History on a lazy Saturday) until Summer 2016, and then I stopped for no reason (or a reason that no longer matters to me, since I can't even remember it). This is the first Vlogbrothers video that I've seen in nearly 4 years (referred here from In a Nutshell's recent video, which also popped up on my feed after not watching them for 2.5 years), and this kind of video was exactly why I started watching them in the first place - these helped me during my coming of age (I was born in 2000!), helping to form me into who I am today. Thank you, John and Hank Green, for your insights into your own lives, because they help illuminate our own lives
Listening to what John and Hank talk about makes me feel excited about living life each day 💚
Thanks for talking so openly about your OCD experience, John. As someone walking on that floor with you, I can tell you that your honesty gives other people comfort and hope.
42 days till A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor comes out!
Available for pre-order now 📚
For a person with OCD symptoms, not knowing is the root of most of my fears. Sometimes, speculations and predictions are not the healthiest in the world. Realizing this and making peace with it helps me to get through the day
so, here in australia we are coming out of the other side of this pandemic. life here still has its restrictions, but the other day i got to hug and run around with my friends, and i just wanted to say to those still living in the middle of this, it will get better. maybe not today or tomorrow or even next month, but at some point it will. and honestly the hug i got from my friends made all of this worth it. so i hope that you will get that moment in the near future.
I truly cannot think of a better metaphor for mental illness, the issues is that every moment feels uncertain. I can’t decide to assume that the floor ahead of me will for sure collapse or to try to ignore the loose planks altogether.
I cannot express how glad I am that you two exist and that I found you. You two have always helped put the world into perspective and helped me navigate that world either by seeing it in a different way or learning to lean on each other and help one another as best we can. Thank you, thank you, thank you. A thousand times I can say thank you, and it won't be enough. Honestly and truly, thank you for this and everything.
I've watched you for so long and never knew about your mental health challenges(anxiety from the sound of it). Thanks so much for being transparent about that. As a fellow creator dealing with not-always-so-fun brain conditions(depression, occasionally anxiety), I always feel some solidarity and encouragement seeing people being successful with their work and living their best life possible in spite of personal challenges.
You just wrapped up so many feelings I'm feeling these days, I really appreciate and feel comforted that I'm not alone.
It really says something that, nowadays, all it takes is 4 syllables of All Star and a Skeletor clip to bring me to the verge of tears.
I’ve been in a writing slump for the past two days. Yesterday I had two words written down, “The unknown”. And now I hear you talking about the unknown. I swear you always inspire me to keep writing. Your thoughts and the way you manage to put them into words is brilliant. Thank you Mr Green!
I've been watching you for years. Your candor and clarity of delivery are wonderful to view, and you consistently give me new things to consider. Your counterpoint to your brother (and his to yours) often bring a certain joy of thoughtfulness to some very difficult things. To make a long message short . . . Thank you.
"Down and down, hitting a world at every plunge." Very apt. Not a great day today, but having the right words makes the uncertainty of those worlds more manageable.
Interesting topic. I like how you circled around the idea of uncertainty and what we don't know, because I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I've realized how abjectly terrified we get about uncertainty - our brains like everything to be certain and known and simple. But the world isn't certain and known and simple, and right now we're experiencing a peak of uncertainty. Instead of chasing certainty, I'm trying to embrace uncertainty. I've been on a big stoicism kick in the last year, and it has helped a lot. "We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." Not to diminish the very real suffering out there, but a lot of people are suffering prematurely over what MAY happen and has not yet.
Hang tough, John! Lots of people are rooting for you, praying for you & sending you positive thoughts & energy. As one who has mental illness, I appreciate your vulnerability and transparency. You are appreciated & loved. You got this. Just keep being you.
Hey!
We're doing a DFTBA-themed gratitude-journal. If you're interested or just like to chat with other Nerdfighters, I'll send you a Discord Invite :)
Pls send
check it out at journalsallthewaydowndotcom.wordpress.com/ :)
thanks!
John, this helps me as I do my best to support my young adult daughter with mental illness. Thank you for making the effort to articulate and express.
I find it comforting when people admit what they do not know and are working toward knowing. It's odd, but that's one of the things that has comforted me about the scientists in charge of the response to the pandemic. They don't have all the answers, but they are committed to finding out. That commitment to the search for answers comforts me, even with my anxiety issues. I wish more leaders could be upfront about these things.
This channel always feels like a warm hug - comment section included. Thanks everyone 😊
Thank you SO MUCH for the way you brought this to a conclusion. Just by stating that we are making better guesses and learning more, and that we will eventually KNOW much of what we don't now know, you have quieted much of the panicked screaming in my head.
your videos are such a comfort to me. you always seem to know what i need to hear. thanks for this.
I can’t help but feel as though you are describing hope. Hope that the floor will still be there, now in real time as you are walking and later once you get to wherever it is you’re going.
The extra unpredictability of the future right now is most certainly the hardest part of this. I've been so excited to start grad school this fall and I've been accepted to a few programs. It's scary not knowing if the program will begin in person and not being sure it's worth starting the program if it will be online. But waiting another year seems equally torturous... this is just my food for thought and I am constantly reminding myself that every single human alive right now is also dealing with this very unique (and also not so uniqu) period of history. Keep on keeping on lovlies.
This is simultaneously comforting and anxiety-inducing. Thanks.
I really liked this. It's true, we're guessing all the time. And it's easier to make a guess when we feel more secure, but having things shaken up means that we still need to make guesses while learning as we go. Eventually, our guesses will be informed by experience, and we'll find ourselves in a position of better security again. We just have to keep taking one step after the other.
understanding how to deal with uncertainty, both my irrational uncertainties and the current events, is, ironically the most certain thing in my day to day life. there's no such thing as maybe to my ocd and i imagine to many others with mental illnesses, so solidarity, friends. stay well and if that is too hard right now, at least stay well enough for the moment.
I've also been having a very difficult time with the current pandemic, my own mental illness makes daily tasks and chores much more difficult than they should feel. Let alone the struggle to go outside and be among other people (thanks social anxiety) compounding now that this dangerous virus is out there. So much changed so suddenly and I had already been trying to cope with grief and loss BEFORE this happened, I can only try and get through each day to learn just a little more about the world tomorrow.
Hi John - thank you so much for this video, and all of your videos really! I'm a teacher from the UK and I have loved your videos for years... I always show my students crash course clips, and clips of you and hank discussing important ideas that I can't articulate at 2:35pm after a full day of teaching 😅 once again, you articulated here a series of things I've been feeling, and I just want to say thank you. Your videos and Hank's videos are timeless, and I hope you continue making them until the 22nd century.
John, I’m very happy to have come across your first TikTok last night. I feel like if there was going to be a social media that you might enjoy again without the pain of being overwhelmed by the bad scrolling that we experience on other platforms (*cough* Twitter *cough*), it would be TikTok. Glad you’re here on the RUclips and in other video formats.
Even when your floor feels so precarious, you use your platform to help us feel steady. :self care bunny:
Wait. Can we take a moment for how cute John's comment of "we got lucky. Well at least I got lucky"
I did the little awwwwww noise people do to puppies 😚 i love when people are in long term happy relationships!! Ya dont hear about them often so it made me happy! :)
This video both explains the limitations and important of my profession (historian of medicine) in four minutes. I have trouble doing that over a semester of lectures. Thank you John Green :)
I've read books about times through which I lived. It is amazing how the chaos transforms into narrative under the light of hindsight. There will be a lot to learn about this in coming.
Hey, I just wanted to let people know that in the subtitles for the video, Covid is spelled kovat throughout. I’m unsure of how one would go about to work to change that for future listeners/ readers but thought that I’d put this bit of info in the comments so that it might make its way to the right people!
"It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right"
Nafia Atam I hope you have the time of your life?
you and hank are my favorite tiktokkers
I'm reminded of how sometimes people (used to) say "I just want to be better at living in the moment, and enjoying everything around me" and suddenly, it seems like that's all we have, since the future is so strangely uncertain. It makes it easier, at least to me, to appreciate the not-so-small things, like being outside in the sunshine, or listening to birds, or great poems. Thanks for your thoughts, John!
Speaking of future, past and present, there is this series called 'Dark' which I absolutely love and has really made me think about how we 'survive' the time rather than 'live' through it.
I needed that uplift in tone there at the end. Thanks, John.
Sounds to me like one of the sanest analyses of the current situation on social media. I'm old enough to remember an early kids tv show called Maggie Muggins. I was very young for philosophy at the time, but every show ended with Maggie recapping what had happened on the episode, and finishing with "and I don't know what will happen tomorrow". None of us do ~ but I like that your didn't refer to that as a "crap shoot". Pls continue to be awesome yourself, John.
What you said about the floor disappearing out from under you resonates with me in my own struggles to be well. Every second is a mountain that must be climbed and I can't even fucking walk any more. My world is a terrible nightmare at its core & nobody sees it because its shell is lackluster & deceptively unremarkable. I'm too good a person to expose those around me to the mayhem so i suffer and wait for it to... anything. All it actually does is get worse. I take comfort in simple acts of human goodness, though, John Green, and thus the Green brothers are worth every click i throw & more. You guys have accomplished so much and with so much class.
Our species has had this societal stress test coming for a long time and the changes we make to our world to keep us safe from Covid-19 will absolutely protect us again and again and again forevermore. This shit is actually making us stronger. Think about it: how many non-covid infections has social distancing prevented already? How is the flu doing lately? Idk honestly but i'd bet money that transmission of it worldwide has slowed to a crawl when compared to how it always was. I hope your floor remains traversable Mr. Green and wish you the finest of journeys atop it
I work in mental health care and it is really hard during Covid-19 times. I try to be a solid floor for my patients that they can rely on, but I feel like an earthquake has shaken my own floor since March. But I still try to stay strong and keep my balance.
realizing the quantity of knowledge you will never have makes you, I think, a more compassionate person. you stop presuming to know what another person's problems or motivations are, and start listening.