Is FUN Destructive to GOOD ART?
Published October 02, 2023 · 13:36 · 86,421 views
About This Video
Van tests his theory that the focus required for worthwhile projects tends to destroy fun, and fun itself is destructive to worthwhile projects. The experiment: build a rope swing on a steep Topanga hillside with his friend Johnny, whose two favorite things are relaxing and fun. They buy rope at Lowe's, discover it's garbage, the branch may not hold, and the swing is still unfinished days later.
They had fun but didn't finish. The theory holds. With a loophole: the worthwhile project was this video, not the swing, and whether it's worthwhile is up to the viewer. That's the turn.
Transcript
this week's video the one you're watching now will be on YouTube next week's video will be on patreon this episode is an experiment to see if I can have fun while I'm making uh an episode cuz normally it's like I think you would have picked like this no see I wouldn't dude I'm heavy duty I'm built like a water buffalo I need like they don't even have the kind that I want like this is even this is too light it's not good they used to have this amazing blue and white stuff that was really thick I think we go chains brother that's a whole other world though you know like oh yeah that's heavy something like this this spirited man has a theory and it's a theory that he hates he wants his theory to be wrong but a great deal of his data supports his theory and his theory is this oh well suppose we open and his theory is this the amount of focus needed to complete a worthwhile project tends to take the fun out of said project and fun in and of itself is destructive to worthwhile projects I'm looking for blue candy cane rope and they don't have it it's a shame Focus that corrodes fun one scheduling keeping to the schedule punctuality and perfect attendance two shooting can be fun building can be fun but shooting himself building requires too much focus and corrodes the fun of both three backup plans and backup plan execution backup plans for each potential failure Point require too much Focus to make the project fun of course Home Depot didn't have the Rope I wanted I'm not complaining that this job isn't Fun nor am I appealing for help I can't figure out how to have work with a professional camera person I get a lot of messages from people on patreon I'm a camera person I can blah blah blah but like okay I just figured out I needed this shot like I don't know 20 minutes ago it's five of five am on a Thursday like what am I just gonna call you and be like get here in two minutes and I need it right now at this point in the edit all of the parts of the process happen sort of simultaneously I'm writing shooting not editing but when I'm when I'm editing I'm writing and shooting sort of simultaneously because there's always refinement and it's only a week to to make each episode so the the process gets mixed in throughout the week but there is something in my conscience that says it's wrong for me to not have fun because this is a fantastic this is a blessing to be able to do this for a living and I guess this episode is just a tweak to import some fun into the shooting part of the process and that's why I wanted to do it with Johnny close Johnny is not a trans woman Johnny is a spirited man sorry fellas he ain't gay neither nor is Bobby but Johnny is fun and so I just want to have fun today I want to see if I can do this process and have it be fun cuz normally I'm a neurotic mess trying to fun is not your your Forte no not anymore it's yours that's relaxing and fun are my two favorite things that's right so this is why it's I'm a good candidate to do an activity with that's going to be fun and easy I got to be honest Lowe's is a lot sexier than Home Depot yeah it's just given a sexier vibe to me I don't really attend either that often we did it buying the whole school by the whole thing today is a Lowe's day they have the the blue that that I like and then they also have red I've never seen that before we got it huh what's more American than red white and blue rope it's probably the best damn piece of burn rope I've ever seen top three it's pretty good let me see the Rope Olympics try not to go in you know try not to breach that line okay on this side nice but but oh I you know what I wasn't clear with my instructions we wanted a perfect circle but I wasn't I wasn't specific enough in my instructions to tell John to try to stay as close to this circle as he could and that was a basically the most important instruction and I just took it for granted they're going to they're going to torch me on YouTube well listen this one's going on patreon first and then in 6 months it's going on YouTube so if you don't like it just be like change it but no this this is uh they might rust you a little bit they're going to destroy me no don't worry about that don't read the comments man all right go ahead huh oh yeah in top of the line buddy can I get you to do a run your fingers over it like you're feeling it slower slower yeah baby nice okay all right okay now now the fun part sanding oh no not long enough if Johnny wasn't here I'd be screaming and cursing at myself and just racing the clock but the beautiful thing about Johnny being here is I don't really care everything's going to be just fine right Johnny who doesn't want to build a swing on the side of a of a of a 90 degree Hill it's fun to work in these conditions yeah but don't you see like that's you swing out you're way high up yeah again I'm not extreme all this I'm going you go out that far that's got bad news written all over it to me this is just a death trap this whole thing is just one wrong slide and I'm ending up in Kaiser Permanente for the next month there you go ah ah first try baby yes okay so this is the loop and this rope goes up over the limb back down to this rope got to pull this rope through this rope over the tree all right I got to trust my kid life on this well I wouldn't trust my fat ass up there he's not he's brave but he ain't stupid all right so like this feel like such a coward okay you oh it's just detention it's just we had one of these Oaks break and fall on us this summer yeah I get it it seems Branch just isn't strong enough all right why does it keep doing that ah why does it keep doing that I don't know I think it's even worse than I think it is I think it's the core on the inside of this rope snapping like this isn't strong rope well it's from Lowe's it's supposed to be the best in the business so oh I can hear it I told you we should have gone to the Rope District ropes on Main I am I'm not testing it I like don't want to go out and just have the whole tree come down but this is fun we're doing like little baby steps oh sister like what is that snapping noise I feel like I don't want to find out I'm telling you it's the core of that rope snapping well this is a failure I guess but we had fun yeah what the hell well we built the swing it works hello see the idea is to swing out over here where it's nice and scary but it's too scary and the Rope we don't trust I had to pick my son up from school so we had to stop building the swing next day torrential downpour couldn't get to the swing next day editing couldn't get to the swing we had fun but didn't finish it's still not done had I scheduled like a madman had I prepared for the failure points like a madman had I shot myself and built myself like a madman yeah maybe maybe the maybe the swing would be done right now but I wouldn't have had any fun so couple holes in my theory because the project the worthwhile project was this video and I guess it's up to you guys to decide whether or not it was worthwhile and it's basically done on this week's patreon only video let me tell you about my truck it's taken 5 years of R&D 5 years of refinement to dial in this gear