Summary
Hank Green argues that “follow your dreams” is often bad advice because dreams are too fixed and too narrow to guide a real life well. Instead, he says people should follow their tools: the combination of their skills, values, curiosities, relationships, experience, and energy. Rather than asking what ideal future identity they are supposed to chase, they should ask what they can actually build, solve, or explore with the toolkit they currently have.
He uses his own career as the example. Many of the things that became central to his work were not part of any early dream, and some did not even exist yet as viable paths. What made those projects possible was not a grand plan but a willingness to look at his existing tools, apply them to interesting problems, and learn new skills through the work itself. He describes himself as a project-based learner whose toolkit expands whenever a project forces him to acquire new capabilities.
Green also says this approach changes how he makes decisions. He “falls downhill” by choosing work that fits his actual motivations and strengths instead of fantasizing about becoming a fundamentally different kind of person powered by sheer discipline. His practical advice is to invest real time and sometimes real money in experiments, even ones likely to fail, because failed projects can still return new tools. For him, good opportunities are not defined by whether they match a dream but by whether they solve a real problem, fit the current toolkit, and expand it in worthwhile ways.
Transcript
[00:00] I just got asked by a reporter uh a [00:02] question and I’m sure he’s going to [00:03] publish it in a news source that’s [00:05] behind a payw wall. And that interview [00:07] is going to be great for the people who [00:08] are subscribed to that publication, but [00:09] I feel like the question was interesting [00:11] and good enough that I should answer it [00:12] publicly in a place where everybody [00:14] could see it or not. Maybe I don’t know. [00:16] This is a little bit much. [00:18] I have a hard time with this like [00:20] knowing where my line should be when it [00:23] comes to like giving advice. But the [00:24] basic question he asked was like after [00:27] all this time, what do you feel like is [00:29] is like the thing that’s responsible for [00:31] all like you doing all of these [00:33] different things and and having success [00:35] in like many different fields and [00:37] formats. So I’m going to tell you what I [00:39] told him. I hope it’s useful. I don’t [00:41] have goals. I don’t have dreams. I think [00:45] that the the narrative that we are [00:46] taught about like follow your dreams [00:48] should uh come with a huge grain of [00:50] salt. In fact, if if I could just take [00:53] it out of our minds, I would. If there’s [00:55] like a place you can put it in your [00:56] brain and then light that place on fire, [00:58] that probably would be for the best in [01:00] terms of actually having impact on the [01:03] world. A dream I definitely did not have [01:05] in 1988 or 2005 was being a YouTuber [01:08] because YouTube didn’t exist. Now, I did [01:10] have the dream that I wanted to be a [01:11] science communicator. But I started [01:13] making YouTube videos on January 1st of [01:15] 2007. And I did not start being a [01:18] science communicator on YouTube until [01:20] 2011. Before I did that, I did something [01:23] that was absolutely not my dream, which [01:25] was I became a musician, like a touring [01:27] musician. That was nowhere on my list of [01:29] things that I wanted to do. I didn’t [01:31] know how to play guitar when I uploaded [01:33] my first YouTube video. So, if not [01:34] dreams, then what? If I had to say this [01:36] in like a trit little way, it would be [01:38] don’t follow your dreams, follow your [01:40] tools. Now in among your tools includes [01:43] you, includes your values, includes what [01:46] inspires you, includes what you know, [01:49] what you’ve learned about, what you’ve [01:50] been drawn toward, what excites you, [01:52] what you believe in. All that stuff is [01:54] part of your toolkit. So, at a certain [01:56] point, I get like mental blocks for [01:58] math. And so, I had a hard time [01:59] continuing to develop that skill, even [02:01] though at first I was like good at math. [02:03] And then eventually, I was like, I can’t [02:05] figure this out. Like, past much past [02:07] calculus, I kind of broke. And maybe I [02:09] could have developed that skill more. [02:10] and that would have been valuable, but [02:12] man, physical chemistry turned me off. [02:15] But I did as a as a like a young man [02:19] have very big sort of young man goals, [02:22] you know, like I wanted to like I wanted [02:23] to to be involved in like the science of [02:26] ending death. That was like a big thing [02:28] for me. I was like this is this is my [02:30] thing. And I like I’d read books that [02:31] that I had like heroes who were [02:32] fictional characters who had like you I [02:36] don’t need to get into details, but [02:38] that’s what I wanted. I like when [02:39] Catherine asked me like my dreams when [02:40] we first met, I was like, I want to fix [02:42] death. But really, what I wanted was to [02:44] like have an impact on the world. And [02:46] for better or worse, I still have that [02:48] one. But I just think that like having [02:49] and aiming for a singular dream doesn’t [02:52] work. Like it means that like a bunch of [02:56] other things pass by and you just like [02:58] watch them pass by cuz they’re not the [03:00] thing you wanted to be. And I saw this [03:02] so much early on in YouTube where these [03:04] people would have amazing audiences. [03:07] They’d have like money coming in. They’d [03:09] have creative freedom. They’d have [03:11] everything. It would be simple. It would [03:13] be small. They’d have the opportunity to [03:15] like build their own thing and [03:16] completely own that thing. And then they [03:18] would spend like half or 3/4 of their [03:20] time auditioning for TV shows, things [03:22] that they didn’t control. they’d only [03:24] get a tiny slice of the money of that [03:26] 99% of the time they would have wasted [03:28] the time of the audition when they could [03:29] have been at home making YouTube videos [03:31] which was more fun and more lucrative [03:33] and ultimately much more impactful on [03:36] the their future as as like creative [03:38] people but they had this dream they had [03:40] this dream that they wanted to be on TV [03:42] and so that was the thing they were [03:44] aiming for like I really honestly think [03:46] at the core of what has helped make me [03:50] successful is that I don’t have dreams I [03:53] don’t want to do anything in particular. [03:56] And that allows me to do two things. [03:58] Number one, just look at my toolkit, [04:01] which includes me and includes what I [04:03] want and includes like the things I’m [04:05] curious about and and my values. But [04:07] just look at my toolkit and think, what [04:09] can I do with this? And if it’s an album [04:10] of nerdy punk rock songs, great. If it’s [04:13] a sock subscription club, fantastic. If [04:15] it’s an online video conference, dope. [04:17] If it’s if it’s 2D glasses that help you [04:20] watch 3D movies in two dimensions, sure, [04:22] I’ll do that. And I am such a [04:24] projectbased learner that without those [04:27] things, my toolkit would be much more [04:29] limited. So every time I take my toolkit [04:31] and I say, “Okay, I could do this.” It [04:33] turns out my toolkit was not complete [04:35] enough to actually do that thing. I had [04:37] to learn a bunch of other stuff along [04:38] the way. Say like, “I’m just going to [04:40] like write some comedy songs.” songs. [04:41] Well, if you actually want to like [04:42] release those with a music video, maybe [04:43] you have to learn how to work and do [04:45] kinetic typography in like an Adobe [04:48] product of some kind. What was I using? [04:50] The one that’s the motion design one. [04:52] It’s been a while. Both the [04:54] extraordinarily enabling and very [04:56] difficult part of my current life is [04:58] that I have so many tools. It’s my it’s [05:01] personal relationships. It’s trust. It’s [05:03] audience. It’s skill. It’s talent. It’s [05:05] like all this stuff that I’ve built up [05:07] that now that the number of like [05:08] unsolved problems I could apply that to [05:10] is fairly large which makes me have a [05:13] hard time like if you have if you can do [05:16] these things not doing them which is why [05:18] I’ve got like 21 different projects on [05:21] one of my burners right now and like in [05:23] any given week maybe I don’t work on the [05:26] thing that I really should be working on [05:27] which is probably my book but I’ll get [05:29] there eventually you know and instead of [05:31] doing this I’m making this video. What [05:32] the hell Hank? So, that’s one thing that [05:34] it allows me to do. And the other one is [05:36] like very counterintuitive and people [05:39] don’t like it kind of. I don’t get the [05:42] best responses when I tell people this, [05:43] but it is when they’re like, “How do you [05:45] decide what to do? How do how I I fall [05:48] downhill is what I say.” I am not [05:51] swimming upstream. Very rarely. Like I [05:54] might be swimming upstream in terms of [05:55] like the broader culture, but in terms [05:57] of my skill set and my toolkit and my [06:00] values, I am doing the easy thing in any [06:04] given moment cuz like I only have so [06:06] much energy. There are times when I’m [06:07] doing the hard thing, but it’s only ever [06:09] because I h I am obliged to like I have [06:11] to because of some you know obligation [06:13] that I have that I I would uh feel like [06:17] a true monster to ignore like that kind [06:19] of thing. mostly and this is like the [06:22] secret to the productivity. I have a I [06:24] have built a very substantial toolkit [06:27] and I h and I mostly fall downhill. So I [06:30] do what’s easy. So like the idea isn’t a [06:32] good idea if it’s going to require a [06:35] tremendous amount of discipline from me [06:37] because I know that I don’t have that [06:38] discipline. Like I know what I’m working [06:40] with, you know? I know I I know what I’m [06:43] working with and like this. I’m working [06:44] with this and this, you know, it it [06:47] can’t be dis it can’t be like that guy [06:50] who gets up at 5 in the morning and [06:51] jumps in the cold plunge and like gets [06:53] everything, you know, all your macros [06:55] are in order and then you you you get [06:57] like two full work days in because [06:58] you’re like, “Well, my first workday [06:59] starts at 5:00 and then my second [07:01] workday starts at 5 and that way I get [07:02] two eight hour days and I get everything [07:04] done.” Like, I’m not that guy. I’m not [07:07] even the kind of guy who can like get up [07:09] in time to go for a hike before it gets [07:11] hot out. Like I’m going I’m falling [07:13] downhill and it’s a weird thing to be [07:16] this productive while not being [07:18] particularly dedicated or I mean people [07:21] will yell at me about this or [07:22] hardworking. I am hardworking but like I [07:25] don’t feel like I’m hardworking cuz [07:27] mostly I’m just doing what I want to do [07:29] in any given moment. Now there are times [07:31] and the and there could be long [07:32] stretches where that’s not the case. I [07:35] am focused and I am exercising [07:37] self-control and I’m pushing on [07:39] something that I that I need to get done [07:41] that I don’t want to do during all of [07:43] the times that I’m doing it. But mostly [07:47] mostly [07:48] but in terms of concrete advice, things [07:51] that I actually did that I think have [07:52] helped me be this way. You know, there’s [07:55] like who I am and like we’re all [07:56] different so we’re going to have [07:57] different ways of doing things. So I’m [07:59] working with me like as I exist. But a [08:03] piece of concrete advice that I really [08:04] would give to people is if you have an [08:06] idea for something that you think is [08:08] like an unsolved problem or or just even [08:11] interesting, do not shy away from [08:15] spending some significant amount of your [08:18] available capital on that. And that is [08:21] both time and money. It’s very easy to [08:24] give and I think that you should. It’s [08:26] very easy to buy education from a [08:29] university. this is absolutely a good [08:31] way to spend money and also uh it is it [08:34] is easier to do it if even if you don’t [08:36] have money because student loan [08:37] infrastructure exists but that’s not the [08:39] only way to learn stuff and so I and at [08:42] various times in my life I have said [08:43] okay it is all right for me to spend 5% [08:46] of my net worth on this idea that [08:50] probably won’t work and when those [08:52] things have failed in my life which [08:54] early on they all did I came out with [08:56] new tools you know that was when I was [09:00] young and silly and and like th those [09:02] ideas were not going to work like they [09:04] there was no path but I learned so much [09:07] doing them so much like working with [09:09] someone else like paying another person [09:11] to to work with you wild like and early [09:15] on there was no income for those things [09:17] so I had to do it out of savings and I’m [09:20] really I I feel like those were really [09:22] smart ideas and sorry they were not [09:25] smart ideas they were bad ideas [09:28] some of them were okay ideas, but they [09:29] like I didn’t actually have the toolkit [09:31] to pull any of them off. But all of them [09:34] I learned so much from just in terms of [09:36] like taking the risk on myself. Like [09:40] rather than spending money in a safe way [09:41] like with school or taking the risk on [09:43] someone else like investing in something [09:44] or giving someone else a loan, taking [09:46] the risk on myself, letting my like [09:48] letting me see what happened when I when [09:50] I outweighed that capital both in terms [09:52] of time and money and like better [09:53] understanding at the end of that process [09:55] what was it that was in the way of that [09:58] success. Was it me? Was it my ability to [10:00] stay focused on the task? Was it the [10:03] cost getting bigger than I thought it [10:04] was going to? The marketing being harder [10:06] than I thought it was going to. The [10:08] story not working for people like just [10:10] there just not being people who wanted [10:12] that product, whatever it was. You know, [10:13] the marketplace sometimes it’s a [10:15] marketplace problem like not [10:16] understanding or being able to integrate [10:18] well into like the app ecosystem would [10:20] be an example from today. At this point [10:22] there there wasn’t in my life there [10:24] wasn’t an like an app store. This was [10:25] more like trying to compete on the web [10:27] for views. And some of those things like [10:30] made some of the money back like money [10:32] did come in. Some of those things never [10:35] and some of those things became actually [10:36] made more money than they cost then just [10:39] like weren’t you know that’s a big [10:40] difference between like that and it [10:42] becoming a job. And of course I’m I’m [10:44] remembering all the stuff through [10:45] through rosecolored glasses and it was [10:47] uh you know how much did I actually [10:49] learn? But I think I did. I think I [10:51] learned a lot from doing that. And I [10:53] hope that people don’t like think less [10:54] of me that I don’t like have a goal that [10:55] I’m running toward. I’m like really [10:58] looking at an like an idea has to solve [11:01] a legitimate problem and it has to be [11:02] achievable with my toolkit and I have to [11:04] understand both of those things really [11:05] well and that’s like where it comes [11:07] from. So understand the problem space [11:09] and that’s probably the hardest part and [11:11] then understanding my toolkit which is [11:12] easier because it’s like I’m I’m in it. [11:15] It is me in many ways. I know it’s it’s [11:17] also this computer and you know the [11:19] relationships I have and and the [11:21] audience I have but like it’s that all [11:23] all this that feels pretty internal to [11:25] me. It feels like a extension of me that [11:27] I don’t sort of like draw the boundary [11:29] of who I am at the [11:32] the flesh boundary at the at the like [11:35] flesh border. That would be silly, you [11:37] know. How could I imagine that when [11:40] people uh are seeing versions of me that [11:42] that made a video 10 years ago and and [11:45] that’s still out there being me um even [11:48] if it’s not me anymore. Anyway, the self [11:51] is a topic for another video. And hey, [11:53] this video is brought to you by this job [11:54] entering marketing and website manager [11:56] at dftdva.com. Uh you can find that at [11:59] the link in the description. So check [12:00] that out if you think it would mesh well [12:01] with your toolkit, which of course [12:02] includes