Good morning, John.

So you know, like, when you get cancer and then you have to go through cancer treatment; And then you write 90 minutes of stand-up comedy about cancer and cancer treatment to prove that you could still do hard things and also that your brain still works and also because you desperately want something good to come out of the bad thing that happened to you, but then you also convince someone to record your comedy as a special so you need to rehearse before you do it, so you book seven shows in Southern California and then—since you're going to be there anyway—you fill up your days making content with other creators and hanging out with friends because you're trying to prove to yourself that you really can do hard things and you aren't that sick anymore; And maybe it's not like a wise set of decisions, but it turns out surprisingly well and you book yourself solid for eight days straight, ending every day with a marathon of 60 to 90 minutes of stand-up comedy shows, actually doing two per night on the last two nights.

So there's a couple of reasons why I've been thinking about YouTuber retirement lately. First, as I was touring around doing podcasts, a lot of people were asking me about it, but also because of the thing that I was actually in Los Angeles to do—which was a bunch of stand-up comedy, culminating in filming it for a special. And here's the thing, when comedians like film their special, they tend to not ever do that show again, at least after it's released because people have seen all the jokes. But what does that have to do with YouTuber retirement?

When I was able to get somebody to agree to record my stand-up special, I was like, "Thank God." First because like I needed pressure to actually finish this show, like, I needed a deadline and the day of the recording, the show was the deadline. And this is nuts, but the last words I said on that stage, the second show that was recorded, we recorded two, we're going to cut them together into one, I wrote those last words on stage. I mean I guess I didn't even write them. I just said them. So like the deadline for the last line, I hit it, but barely! But also like, I really desperately wanted to have this project—the standup—be done. I think this is really interesting. Like, I've created in a lot of different formats before. You finish a book, it's finished. You finish a song, it locks in place in people's minds and they even hate it if you change it. You do stand-up, you record the special, you start working on new material or you don't.

YouTube isn't like that and I think it's a good idea to think about why, especially for YouTube creators. I think there are a lot of reasons for it. I don't think it's simple. But the way that this works is kind of as if the entire channel is one song and the song doesn't end. And like, Tom Scott and Mat & Stephanie represent like two versions of this. Tom Scott is like the song ended. I made this big long song, here's how it's ending and altogether, it is a body of work. And like, in the future, Tom Scott, I know this guy, he's not going to stop being creative. He will make other things. Whereas Theorist is another way to do this where you just have the song keep going without you.

And here's what's up with regards to vlogbrothers. I think that we are still doing it 'cause the song isn't over and is still delivering. Like, I think a lot of people make YouTube videos primarily because it is rewarding them in some way. Often times because like this is their income. Vlogbrothers definitely used to be like that, it isn't anymore. Now we're doing it because it's rewarding in other ways and like primarily like a creative way. It's not really the creation of the videos that's the inspiring creative part, it is the creation of the project, of the community, of the things that we do.

But my main point isn't about me, it's about the entire idea of YouTubers retiring, which to me isn't really YouTubers retiring. What it is is a person who has finished doing something. So it's a good thing that there are more people who have that freedom economically and also have that freedom socially from their audience and that the grace from their audience to feel as if they can do it. Because there is a weirdness to it because a lot of these channels including—Tom Scott and Theorist—have this relationship with an audience and so, you have to explain like why are we making this choice. And respecting a choice that is being made by a person about their life, a YouTube channel is not a person. It's not a person's life. It's a part of a person's life. It's a thing that they are creating. And it really does feel to me like creative works used to be discrete units. Like YouTube video is a discreet thing, but I think the real unit of a YouTuber's body of work isn't a video, it's the channel.

And that's weird, like, I think it's historically weird to have a unit of creation that is decades long. And so I understand why moving away from a channel is a big deal, but I think that retirement is the wrong word. I just don't think that we have the right way to talk about it yet. So I hope people keep thinking about it.

John, I'll see you on Tuesday.