Connections 2014 – Keynote Review: John Green

John Green, New York Times’s #1 best selling author of The Fault in Our Stars, spoke at the Connections 2014 conference, and I thought what he had to say was very profound and touching. Check out my previous post, recapping will.i.am’s fireside chat at Connections this year.

John Green. His talk centered on being yourself, repeatedly discovering yourself, and what was important to him.

John, who was born in Indianapolis, began his talk by highlighting his early years as a nerdy child. I couldn’t believe how far he had come from the images he showed as a bespectacled gangly youth. He acknowledged at the time that he was pretty awkward and socially backwards, and he noted that people tried to encourage him by saying “Just be yourself”. He remarked that was exactly the problem, that he was being himself! John stated that in today’s modern world, being “authentic” is an important trait. It’s important to be true to yourself. That implies that you know who you are. But as John said, people change over time. Your interests grow and shift, the people in your life change, your work changes. How are you expected to be the same person this whole time, and to be “authentic”? How do you find yourself if you don’t know yourself? The answer is, “You don’t become yourself, you become yourself over and over and over again.” I thought this was fairly obvious yet contradictory to popular opinion.

John told a story from his childhood. He and his dad built a bench out of wood, and once they were finished, they basked in the glory of a job well done. They sat on the bench and gazed at the stars that had come out that night. They spoke about Astronomy, a shared topic they both were interested in, trading facts and stories. That moment stayed with John throughout his career in a very profound way. John built something with someone he loved, then sat together and used that something to converse about a shared interest that they both shared a passion. In everything John does now, he tries to recreate that feeling he had on the bench. He wants to always connect with fans over shared interests, and technology is a great enabler of that.

John relayed how he became a noted video blogger (vlogger). He started out small with his brother on a weekly series. As he grew in fame, John remained interested in the topics that were important to him, not necessarily the topics that would garner him the most attention (e.g., giraffe sex videos. Don’t ask.) This focus gained him trust with his growing community, who shared his passion with furthering intellectualism. Eventually his following became known as “Nerd Fighters”, which means nerds who fight for intellectualism. It did not mean that people were fighting nerds. His community allowed for immediate commercial success when John decided to write and publish his books, and that success continued with the release of the movie TFIOS. John gave some witty observations about how little an author is involved in an adapted screenplay and then movie – he got cut from the final version of the movie TFIOS but he made the DVD in a deleted scene! Along his career journey, John stated that he is always rediscovering himself. An old version of himself believed and acted a certain way, but then later he grew and realized he thought differently. But his advice was to always be open about what you don’t know, because he can really embarrass yourself if you are not up on a topic. He pronounced a certain pop star’s name wrong to a bunch of teens at the mall. John couldn’t be more mortified when they rolled their eyes and corrected him.

See John Green’s entire speech here. He’s a very funny guy, who is also very interested in education, just like will.i.am. He and his brother received a grant from Google to develop a series of educational videos called “Crash Course”, which helps to teach AP level history topics. As of April 6, 2014, the CrashCourse YouTube channel has earned over 1.5 million subscribers and over 90 million video views. I really enjoyed his talk. Open thought and honest debates are obviously missing in today’s 140 character mob mentality, rushing to pronounce judgment from behind their screens. I liked the idea of him being a champion of intellectualism, and you can easily tell why he has so many loyal followers. We need more people like John Green in our society.