Good morning John, Whats that?

This is the final first edition. This is the actually the thing that will be in the stores version of my book and it's pretty and it's beautiful and I love it and it's terrifying.

John I've been talking to a lot of press people lately and they have so far invariably asked me a question about whether there's a sense of competition between you and me. Am I going to compare the success of my book to the success of your books? Is there some element of me wanting to write a book because my older brother did and I want to prove that I'm an author too?

In fact on Tuesday I was talking to a reporter from the Wall Street Journal and when she got to this section of her notes she sounded like she was kind of begrudgingly asking me this question like she knew what the answer was gonna be and here here it is: It has never even occurred to me that my book will sell as well as any of your books and not because it's a ridiculous idea, which it is, but because I don't I don't imagine my success in relation to your success why? Ive been thinking about success lately because there's a lot of frustration and burnout and the YouTube community I think and I'm been thinking that we can often forget that success is a different shape for different people and we each imagine it to be a different thing and it also changes shape. There have been times in my life where I have changed the way that I imagine the world and in those moments the shape of success has changed for me. And sometimes those have been hard moments but I think they've always been good moments and one thing about success is that just like any shape you can't see how big it is unless you put it in relation to something else.

One of those common ways you do this is you compare today's success with how you were doing in the past but we also put our success in relation to other peoples' success or at least our conception of their success and I think that happens for reasons obvious and not a lot with siblings. But, and I can't tell you why, it hasn't happened with us. It's not because we're not competitive like put Hank and John Green on a mini golf course and cross your fingers that everybody comes out not bleeding.

I think to some extent these videos got better because we were trying to out do each other but not in a way that was like I want to be more successful than you just in a way that like I wanna make a better joke than you. That's very different from like measuring the value of our contributions to the universe in relation to each other which is kind of what this artificial and now somewhat kinda gross sounding concept of success really means. I honestly feel like every time something good happens to you its a good thing happening to me. That is a gift and it's a gift that was given to me i think at least in part by this community and this project and it is a really valuable gift. I'm very thankful for it.

That reporter form the Wall Street Journal also asked me if you were planning any projects or anything like that to promote the book and I told her that I didn't I didn't know but like probably was my guess. But what i didn't expect is this or any of this!

John thank you so much. Thank you for being the absolute model - like the platonic ideal of what a supportive older brother can be. Thank you for your support not just now but for my whole life and your support of this thing that I made which is hard and weird and different and I'm really excited for it to be in the world.

John I'll see you on Tuesday and then not long after that in New York City for the release of my book on September 25th and the start of our tour. Whoooo. Endscreen there will be a book tour September 25th in New York then Boston, Canton Ohio, Chicago,  Kansas city Missouri, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Denver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Cruz and Bellingham Washington. Also, check out the new Nerdfighter backpack limited supply available now at DFTBA.com