Good morning, John. 

Last week I was in Amsterdam, and as usual when I go someplace that is not my home, I am struck by all the little differences, like all the bikes and the trains and the trams, where in my town almost everybody gets around by car. It's easy to say that this is a question of circumstance, and of course, it is. In Amsterdam it's dense, the roads are old and narrow, and the county is flat and isn't covered in snow half the year like it is here in Montana, but it's also a question of choice, individuals making decisions and establishing and following norms.

In Amsterdam even if it's faster to take a bus, even if it's raining and gross, people still bike, because that's what you do. And since so many people do, everything is built for bikes and trams and trains, while I imagine trying to find parking would be a miserable terrible disaster. I don't actually know, though, how these norms get established. I imagine that they are things that just fit, things that simply make sense to the people who have come together to make a place. Norms that make them feel good and valued and healthy and satisfied.

The blending of story into place, into groups. That's a thing that I thought a lot about this year at Vidcon EU because it's also the story of online communities, which is what Vidcon ultimately is about. At Vidcon EU this year we weren't able to have a fan component for a bunch of reasons I will put on the screen right now if you're curious, but it was still able to be that kind of cultural exploration. We get a chance to ask where our ideas come from, what stories we are telling to ourselves and to each other, and whether they are good stories.

Having the community there, I think, makes that even better, which is why I came away from Vidcon EU so excited for Anaheim and Australia later this year. I'm working on what I think are some pretty good speeches for those VidCons about defining success and some of the strategies that I find really work when trying to figure out what kind of content is going to get attention and be successful but also not be bad for the people watching it.

I'm excited about my panels and also to do an old school acoustic set to close out the whole event in Anaheim. I guess being founder has its advantages. I'm really proud of Vidcon, proud of people who take their stories seriously and who let them change and become messy and complex. 

A couple of weeks ago on our new podcast, "Delete This," Katherine and I were talking about how the messiness of stories can make it hard to love something one hundred percent. But maybe loving something one hundred percent isn't right. Maybe it start with joy and ends with joy, but joy that also has care and concern and thought mixed in. And if we're not doing it that way I don't even know if that's right, which is why I love Vidcon and also why I love my new podcast where Katherine reviews my twitter feed. And if you want to find out more about those things there's links, and maybe even some coupon codes, in the description. 

Any opportunity to examine the stories I tell myself is something I want more of in my life. Taking an hour every week to go through my twitter feed with someone cares about me a lot is a great way to do that, and so is traveling to a new place and making a bunch of cool time-lapse videos, and so is getting together to celebrate and contemplate with a bunch of people who care about and love and are excited about and also worried about a lot of the same things as me.

John, I'll see you on Tuesday.