Hank Green on recognizing invisible prevention and celebrating counterfactual lives saved
By Arthur Malone๐ธ @ 2025-05-27T14:45 (+59)
This is a linkpost to https://youtu.be/ndeB_BpsRGk?feature=shared
From a vlogbrothers video by Hank Green comes the most EA-flavored framing from a non-EA I've ever seen. In the following quote from the video he's referencing the work done by Partners in Health and supported by the YouTube community that exists around him, his brother John Green, and the work they do. More information on that project is in another recent video.
I think about this in the context of this community's work in Sierra Leone: already fewer women are dying in childbirth, and that victory is so quiet.
If 3,000 women in West Africa were trapped in a fallen building, there would be international news stories about it; there would be outcry to save them. But if 30,000 women each have a 10% chance of dying in childbirth that's the same 3,000 deaths. But due to, I think, just the way the human mind works, we are incapable of seeing that as the same kind of catastrophe, and as fixing it as the same kind of heroism. [emphasis mine]
We need to get way better at accepting the miracle of things that didn't happen, because that's where some of humanity's greatest victories are hiding. And if we don't understand that the things that didn't happen, they might very well begin happening again.
Mjreard @ 2025-05-27T18:57 (+7)
Tons of overlap in how the vlogbrothers think about their impact and EA. Great to see.
In particular, there was one episode of their podcast recently (I think it was "The Green Brothers are Often Wrong"), where they got comically close to describing themselves as EA; remarking that John was the heart (who cared a lot about people and "what was most important") and Hank was the head, being really concerned with science and truth and progress and reasoning.
They are of course aware of EA via large EA participation in their PFA donation drive, but I believe they have a distant, caricatured view of the community itself. I heard of a livestream where they were asked about it and John said something to the effect of "there's a lot of harm you can do if you only think of people as objects of analysis for you to intervene on when you should be dealing with them directly and empowering them in the ways that they decide they want to be empowered."
Angelina Li @ 2025-05-28T00:13 (+7)
They are of course aware of EA via large EA participation in their PFA donation drive, but I believe they have a distant, caricatured view of the community itself.
Aww, that is such a pity. Thanks for sharing that anecdata.
As someone who grew up watching the vlogbrothers I have always felt like we should be allies / friends! Fingers crossed, maybe one day ๐ค
Dave Cortright ๐ธ @ 2025-05-29T04:06 (+1)
I put 2 comments on that video that unfortunately haven't gotten many upvotesโฆ
๐ฃ๐ฒ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐โthe day in which nuclear war didn't break out in 1983โis celebrated by some people (mostly nerds ๐ค)
...
In the spirit of this video, all of these people should be known and celebrated: ๐ก๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ด, ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ & ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น ๐๐ผ๐๐ฐ๐ต, ๐๐ฑ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฑ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ, ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฎ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐น๐ธ, ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป, ๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ผ๐๐๐ผ๐, ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐น ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐๐๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ, ๐๐น๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐น๐ฒ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ด, ๐๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ก๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐ป, ๐๐ผ๐ต๐ป ๐ฆ๐ป๐ผ๐, ๐๐ฏ๐ฒ๐น ๐ช๐ผ๐น๐บ๐ฎ๐ป, ๐๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ต ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฟ, ๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐๐น๐ฎ๐ ๐ฃ๐ฒ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐, ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐น๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ธ๐ต๐ถ๐ฝ๐ผ๐
I think YouTube might be shadowbanning me for using UNICODE bold ยฏ\_ (ใ)_/ยฏ