(This is an online archive of an essay from my weekly newsletter How It Actually Works. If you'd like to read more material like this for free give me your email here.)
We interrupt our regularly scheduled program
I’m out of town this week without Internet. So today I’m doing something a little different: sharing my favorite YouTube videos that either influence how I see the world or just get me excited to be alive.
Hope you enjoy, and next week we’ll be back to the regular program.
-Trevor
YouTube Links
Sam Harris on death and life
“If you observe yourself closely you’ll observe that you spend a fair amount of energy each day trying not to die.”
David Foster Wallace: The problem with irony
“The problem though is now a lot of the schticks of postmodernism – irony, cynicism, irreverence – are now part of whatever it is that’s entered in to the culture itself.”
John Green on how to win
Just keep going
Pâro: The Feeling That Everything You Do Is Somehow Wrong
Beautiful music.
Trailer for Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Horrible movie, great trailer! (The music is awesome, by Scala and Kolacny Brothers)
Highlights of Liverpool coming back from 0-3 to beat AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League Final
Soccer team chants and music are underrated.
Art Williams Just Do It speech
No excuses!
Rick and Morty: Rick talks about love
A thousand years of philosophy in 17 seconds.
Remember How We Forgot
Slow poetry slam put to live violin music on the nostalgia of youth. Excellent!
White Wine In the Sun
Reflects my feelings about family and Christmas since leaving Mormonism
Life explained in 27 seconds by Casey Neistat
Involves a walking escalator.
Christmas Greeting from Chuck Norris
My favorite Chuck Norris joke of all time (a spoof of this real Honda commercial w/ Jean-Claude Van Damme)
Time lapse of girl learning to dance in a year
All progress is built on what you do this month, today, now.
So God Made a Farmer
My favorite Super Bowl commercial of all time.
American Pharaoh winning the Triple Crown
“And American Pharaoh makes his run for glory!… And here it is, the 37-year wait is over. American Pharaoh is finally the one! American Pharaoh has won the Triple Crown!!”
Obama Mic Drop:1999. The Gregory Brothers songified Obama’s last State of the Union
No about politics, just pure hilarity.
This was originally published in my weekly newsletter, How It Actually Works.