God I love all of the things you have taught me through the years that I didn’t know I wanted to know about and yet here I am, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you talk about what fascinates you, it’s like talking to an old friend but you don’t know we’re friends and I’m okay with that
Honestly, if you can't walk up to someone and tell them about your fascinations without any lead in or context, are they even your friend? (This coming from an ND individual with largely ND friends.)
Okay, this has been a hilarious series of events for me. The first video YT algorithm showed me of you, was the one where you explain the differences between yourself and Hank. My thought on that video was “dang, they have similar looks and mannerisms”, then a few hours later there’s the video where you mention being brothers. Now this video, you mention paper towns and I instantly think “wait, I remember reading a book with that name in high school I think”. I then proceed to Google and am reminded it is indeed a book, and then I chuckle because the authors first name is the same as yours. Then my brain thinks “Hank Green….Brother to John….John Green….OH MY GOD!”. So this whole time, I’ve been a huge fan of Hank Green’s science fact video, then decided to follow his friend realizing it’s his brother. Then realizing here I am following one of my favourite author’s without even realizing it! I’m now also wondering how many other authors or famous figures I’m following online or have run into on the street, but never realizing they were the source of something I loved in my younger days. 😹
That’s hilarious, but not a rare occurrence. I find comments about people not knowing that john green is also the author john green, or that john and hank are two people, and it’s always hilarious when i see people realise that.
Dictionaries also used to do this too back when they were physical books. Authors would make up a fake word and a fake definition and would sue other dictionaries that copy their decoy
Back in the 90's there was a friendly bicycle nerd in the Boston area who made Massachusetts bicycling maps. His "paper town" tactic was to put tiny turtle icons in places he especially cared about. Clearly he was a very wise person. :-)
It is pretty powerful. Believing in things is one of the first steps to them becoming real. Obviously not everything people believe in becomes real, but basically anything that people have made first had to be believed in
I just listened to a podcast talking about paper towns, and they mentioned your book. A book I remember asking my librarian at my high school to get for me because you worked on it during Brotherhood 2.0
I just read this part of Paper Towns just last night (I'm reading it to my partner before bed) My partner has read it before and got a kick out of how much I geeked out over this 😅
John, paper towns is still my favorite book of yours. Excited for the new ones. Also, I remembering buying it while out of town at my grandparents small town home. I brought some books and couldn't stop reading paper towns throughout the night. Thank you for this! The movie was also amazing :D
This story will never ever ever get old as long as I live, no matter how many times you tell it. It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard of.
Reminds me of a story where cartographers placed contour lines in the shape of an elephant somewhere in western Africa because they thought no one would actually visit or check the area. It was shown on the TV show Qi.
In the early 2000's a bunch of big name actors were in a small budget film called "Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road". It feels like it's the story of someone just following a map to these paper towns. And I think that would still be a fun road trip.
I grew up in South Florida and Orlando was of course our usual local vacation stop. I remember always passing by places like Magic Castle or The Wizard Head gift shop. Paper Towns was always in my library and much like Hoot and James Paterson’s Treasure Hunters it connected to me on a personal level because it was as if I truly lived within the story itself and the characters could be friends of mine. when I become a filmmaker I pray for the chance to adapt Paper Towns into a series or maybe a film reboot that is more in line to the novel.
Just last night I somehow came across someone's video of your tour for the movie version of PT back in 2015 when you were in London. Now I want to rewatch the movie 🥰
John I don’t know if you’re gonna see this but years ago when the Paper Towns movie came out I read the book for a book report. I stayed up all night finishing reading it in my bathroom, getting like 3 hours of sleep before we had to drive to go get our new family dog. Long story short we ended up actually going to Roscoe, NY (I lived in CT) to pick up our dog Louis and my parents were kind enough to to go through ‘Agloe’ and I think I remember a tower or something that was mentioned in the book. That was really the first time I left the state and it inspired my life of traveling- so basically thank you for that
i was watching one of your other little tiktok youtube shorts things about something entirely unrelated, but i was like "yeah its absolutely time for me to reread paper towns, yup." and then i sat on my couch and did not make the effort to reread paper towns which would have involved cleaning my glasses or going to the library but now . . . NOW that i've seen THIS. well it's a sign. i can't ignore it. i really have to clean my glasses and go to the library and reread paper towns. it's time.
God i ❤️ the obscure infor. Im a nerd for weird info. Its generally the only thing that sticks. My family call me the font of useless knowledge. But surprizingly the odd things i know come up in at the oddest times.
Is anyone else imagining the first guy that showed up in the paper town and was like this looks like a good place to live…….. and then became lifelong friends with the others that showed up
I remember finding what may well have been one in the early online maps days. It was in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, showing a street that never existed (would have cut through the Scranton's estate) and only displayed with the most zoomed-in level plus the site would not ever give it as part of driving directions.
If anyone is interested in map fun facts there's a place in tn called Jellico. It used to be Jerico but a map company misprinted it and the town officials liked it so much they changed the name of the town. Jellico mt is a very steep hill that sort of marks the halfway point to our family in the south and has a little place in my heart.
"My map is wrong. Let's fix it." "Okay. We'll contact the publisher and..." "Nope. I founded a town." "You what?" I've heard this story before (from you) but I still love it. Humans can be hilariously awesome, sometimes. Thanks for sharing and DFTB(H)A.
Another famous copyright trap: the fictitious word "esquivalience" was included in the New Oxford American Dictionary in 2001, the purported definition being, "the willful avoidance of one's official responsibilities".
I'm a designer and I found out that a new employer had stolen some design work from a previous employer because one of their designs had my "vestigial" component in it. I had suspicions before then, as a lot of stuff looked familiar. When I was working on a new project and realized that I was opening files I had created some 10 years earlier, I knew the sales person had somehow acquired those files and taken them to the new company.
Thomas Guide in California had the definitive map book of Los Angeles, and also had some cleaver map traps. When I was a taxi dispatcher (waaaaay back in the 80's) it wasn't out of the question to send recalcitrant drivers to an order on one of the map trap streets.
Google and other mapping apps still do the same sort of thing, though at a more granular level, adding small turn-arounds (truncated side roads) or other near-inconsequential details.
Ive been watching a lot of your UA-cam shoets recently and now i just realized I have your book on my bookcase! I picked up Papertowns years ago when Vsauce recommended it in one of his videos
There's more to the story, according to the Map Men: Agloe was spotted on another company's map so they were taken to court by those who'd put it there as a trap, but it become a real place so they lost the case
God I love all of the things you have taught me through the years that I didn’t know I wanted to know about and yet here I am, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing you talk about what fascinates you, it’s like talking to an old friend but you don’t know we’re friends and I’m okay with that
Honestly, if you can't walk up to someone and tell them about your fascinations without any lead in or context, are they even your friend?
(This coming from an ND individual with largely ND friends.)
@@impishDullahan I highly agree (another ND person with mainly ND friends)
What does being from North Dakota have to do with anything
This is an unhealthy parasocial relationship. Please seek treatment.
@@2nd-place oh my God stop it.
Okay, this has been a hilarious series of events for me. The first video YT algorithm showed me of you, was the one where you explain the differences between yourself and Hank. My thought on that video was “dang, they have similar looks and mannerisms”, then a few hours later there’s the video where you mention being brothers. Now this video, you mention paper towns and I instantly think “wait, I remember reading a book with that name in high school I think”. I then proceed to Google and am reminded it is indeed a book, and then I chuckle because the authors first name is the same as yours. Then my brain thinks “Hank Green….Brother to John….John Green….OH MY GOD!”. So this whole time, I’ve been a huge fan of Hank Green’s science fact video, then decided to follow his friend realizing it’s his brother. Then realizing here I am following one of my favourite author’s without even realizing it!
I’m now also wondering how many other authors or famous figures I’m following online or have run into on the street, but never realizing they were the source of something I loved in my younger days. 😹
That’s hilarious, but not a rare occurrence. I find comments about people not knowing that john green is also the author john green, or that john and hank are two people, and it’s always hilarious when i see people realise that.
If you like both of them you should really check out their main channel vlogbrothers!
A bit embarrassed to admit but, you're not alone 😅
I actually think it's wonderful how things have come back around for you.
Please watch John Green's Crash Course History videos.
That is very poetic. I’m not surprised you wrote a book based on this topic.
Dictionaries also used to do this too back when they were physical books. Authors would make up a fake word and a fake definition and would sue other dictionaries that copy their decoy
Mountweazel has a better ring to it than paper town.
Nowadays people make up words & the dictionaries include them. Lol
@@KristenRowenPliske That's how language works, ever since language has been a thing, people have created words to describe things.
@@KristenRowenPliske you just described languages
Back in the 90's there was a friendly bicycle nerd in the Boston area who made Massachusetts bicycling maps. His "paper town" tactic was to put tiny turtle icons in places he especially cared about. Clearly he was a very wise person. :-)
one could say there was turtles.... all the way down?
john green brand syngery
@@tomboy2980 lol you beat me to it
PAPER ALL THE WAY TOWNS
@@tomboy2980 What? Shut up.
John actually did a TEDx talk about this topic years back and its legitimately fantastic imo
That was him?
He also wrote a novel on it
m.ua-cam.com/video/NgDGlcxYrhQ/v-deo.html
That last line gave me chills lol
Really glad I wasn't the only one. Felt so innocuous but hit so hard.
It is pretty powerful. Believing in things is one of the first steps to them becoming real. Obviously not everything people believe in becomes real, but basically anything that people have made first had to be believed in
I just listened to a podcast talking about paper towns, and they mentioned your book. A book I remember asking my librarian at my high school to get for me because you worked on it during Brotherhood 2.0
if it was the SYSK episode, Josh calls him Tom Green on accident
Someone should write a book about this
I guess I should finally go read "Paper Towns" now
That's the most eloquent story of humanity I've ever heard.
A paper town became real by virtue of people believing in it. I’m not crying you’re crying
There’s actually a really good book based on this concept called “The Cartographers”. Its a thriller and I loved it. Highly recommend
John wrote a book called paper towns about it
I just read this part of Paper Towns just last night (I'm reading it to my partner before bed)
My partner has read it before and got a kick out of how much I geeked out over this 😅
That is so cute. Thank you for sharing
wow it'd be cool if someone wrote a YA novel about this
This is a secret Haloween video. Agloe is a TULPA
I very much love obscure facts like this!
Wow! I can't wait to find out the deep cut meaning of the title for the book "An Abundance Of Katherines"!
I wish I could put shorts in a playlist. You and Hank say the most profound and quotable things.
If you go into History, you might be able to add them to playlists.
woah that works, thank you internet stranger
I loved that book man. Only one to ever make me cry
I have heard you tell this story many times and I am still not tired of it.
This just gave me the best idea for my fantasy novel!! Thank you!
I love that I first learned about trap streets from Doctor Who. I love that you are showing us whole towns. I knew some existed, but not any names.
Thank you for sharing this great cartography story. That the fake town became real make me laugh out loud. Thank you for that🏆🇺🇸🌹😎☮️🌞
I drove through Agloe coming back from Rochester this weekend and my SO and I couldn't pinpoint how we heard of it! Mind Blown.
Never underestimate humanity's potential to deny they got tricked by a piece of paper.
I remember learning about paper towns in high school
Thanks for the trip down memory lane
John, paper towns is still my favorite book of yours. Excited for the new ones. Also, I remembering buying it while out of town at my grandparents small town home. I brought some books and couldn't stop reading paper towns throughout the night. Thank you for this! The movie was also amazing :D
This story will never ever ever get old as long as I live, no matter how many times you tell it.
It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever heard of.
Had to share this with my wife. She grew up just south of Roscoe and Agloe in Parksville/Liberty.
I love the video version of the book!!!! That metaphor it's why I love paper towns!!!
This is really cool. You should include it in a book someday!
"A wise guy, eh!"
I like that in your close up you can see Arena and Pepacton - both are now gone due to the construction of the Pepacton Reservoir in the fifties.
Reminds me of a story where cartographers placed contour lines in the shape of an elephant somewhere in western Africa because they thought no one would actually visit or check the area.
It was shown on the TV show Qi.
Proly the coolest factoid I'll learn all day.
The word factoid was coined to represent fake information presented as fact. It's the original "fake news".
In the early 2000's a bunch of big name actors were in a small budget film called "Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road". It feels like it's the story of someone just following a map to these paper towns. And I think that would still be a fun road trip.
I grew up in South Florida and Orlando was of course our usual local vacation stop. I remember always passing by places like Magic Castle or The Wizard Head gift shop. Paper Towns was always in my library and much like Hoot and James Paterson’s Treasure Hunters it connected to me on a personal level because it was as if I truly lived within the story itself and the characters could be friends of mine. when I become a filmmaker I pray for the chance to adapt Paper Towns into a series or maybe a film reboot that is more in line to the novel.
What a turn to that story. Not where I thought it was going. That cool.
Just last night I somehow came across someone's video of your tour for the movie version of PT back in 2015 when you were in London.
Now I want to rewatch the movie 🥰
Someone should write a book about Paper Towns or something.
In addition to Paper Towns there is a recent release called The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd that features Agloe and it's excellent
I've heard the term "paper town" before but never really knew what it meant. perfect early morning knowledge to take in!
John I don’t know if you’re gonna see this but years ago when the Paper Towns movie came out I read the book for a book report. I stayed up all night finishing reading it in my bathroom, getting like 3 hours of sleep before we had to drive to go get our new family dog. Long story short we ended up actually going to Roscoe, NY (I lived in CT) to pick up our dog Louis and my parents were kind enough to to go through ‘Agloe’ and I think I remember a tower or something that was mentioned in the book. That was really the first time I left the state and it inspired my life of traveling- so basically thank you for that
Thats the most inspiring story I have ever heard
It's like they didn't read Paper Towns. You covered this pretty well in the book.
My favorite book “The Cartographers” is about this same thing!
I knew paper towns existed but I didn't know about this specifically. Super neat!
Thank you hank. Ur videos are always so helpful.
I really enjoy history in the morning 😌
Woah, I knew about trap streets but I hadn't heard of entire towns being added. So rad!
"If you build it, they will come."
"Well actually sir, we don't even need to build it."
Haha! Good point!
This is fascinating! Thank you!
I love how this is also a book of his too 😄
I watched an awesome video about this a while back. The more you know...😊
I love this story so much and I love rewatching your Ted Talk ab it
literally
i was watching one of your other little tiktok youtube shorts things about something entirely unrelated, but i was like "yeah its absolutely time for me to reread paper towns, yup." and then i sat on my couch and did not make the effort to reread paper towns which would have involved cleaning my glasses or going to the library but now . . . NOW that i've seen THIS. well it's a sign. i can't ignore it. i really have to clean my glasses and go to the library and reread paper towns. it's time.
You have the best random facts.
God i ❤️ the obscure infor. Im a nerd for weird info. Its generally the only thing that sticks. My family call me the font of useless knowledge.
But surprizingly the odd things i know come up in at the oddest times.
If we can do this, we can do ANYTHING ❤️
Is anyone else imagining the first guy that showed up in the paper town and was like this looks like a good place to live…….. and then became lifelong friends with the others that showed up
AND THIS IS WHY PAPER TOWNS IS, WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE FILMS, thank you and goodbye 😌🤣
I remember finding what may well have been one in the early online maps days. It was in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, showing a street that never existed (would have cut through the Scranton's estate) and only displayed with the most zoomed-in level plus the site would not ever give it as part of driving directions.
I have never been into cartography like that but that is so cool to learn
Free maps now means something completely different
This is amazing...i love this.
If anyone is interested in map fun facts there's a place in tn called Jellico. It used to be Jerico but a map company misprinted it and the town officials liked it so much they changed the name of the town. Jellico mt is a very steep hill that sort of marks the halfway point to our family in the south and has a little place in my heart.
I loved reading 📚 that book 📖 😍
This is too cool and I’m shocked I’ve gotten this old and never knew this.
That sounds like a great premise for a sci-fi or fantasy book
"My map is wrong. Let's fix it."
"Okay. We'll contact the publisher and..."
"Nope. I founded a town."
"You what?"
I've heard this story before (from you) but I still love it. Humans can be hilariously awesome, sometimes. Thanks for sharing and DFTB(H)A.
This reminds me of the book Paper Towns that used to be one of my favorites. Like you might like it too. You should check it out
Perhaps the real paper towns were the friends we made along the way
wow this would make for a great title for a book and maybe even a movie
So we found the reverse of "if you build it they will come" lol that's super cool
Paper towns, that'd make a good book title
Literally speaking something into existence
Mountweasel is the name for this in printed works, originated by an entry in the 1975 encyclopedia for the photographer Lillian mountweasel.
Another famous copyright trap: the fictitious word "esquivalience" was included in the New Oxford American Dictionary in 2001, the purported definition being, "the willful avoidance of one's official responsibilities".
That’s such a cute fact!! Happy
I always wondered what the name of the movie "Paper Towns" came from. That's cool!
It's like how Bethesda keeps bugs in their code to tell if it's been copied.
I'm a designer and I found out that a new employer had stolen some design work from a previous employer because one of their designs had my "vestigial" component in it. I had suspicions before then, as a lot of stuff looked familiar. When I was working on a new project and realized that I was opening files I had created some 10 years earlier, I knew the sales person had somehow acquired those files and taken them to the new company.
The Ordinance Survey in the UK still uses these traps to catch out people who are using unlicensed copies of their maps.
"Paper towns and why learning is awesome" ♡
i unironically love that
It’s giving Tinkerbell “I do believe in fairies”
This has been a thing since cartography was invented and is really really cool.
Thomas Guide in California had the definitive map book of Los Angeles, and also had some cleaver map traps. When I was a taxi dispatcher (waaaaay back in the 80's) it wasn't out of the question to send recalcitrant drivers to an order on one of the map trap streets.
Google and other mapping apps still do the same sort of thing, though at a more granular level, adding small turn-arounds (truncated side roads) or other near-inconsequential details.
This sounds like a great metaphorical premise of a book 🤔
Can we do the same with Santa Claus? Yes, there are at least six Christmas movies with exactly this as the plot.
Fun fact! Thank you.
No wonder her face was a glow when I asked grandma the history of her town.
I knew dictionaries did this but it's kinda wild that MAP makers did the same.
Ive been watching a lot of your UA-cam shoets recently and now i just realized I have your book on my bookcase! I picked up Papertowns years ago when Vsauce recommended it in one of his videos
There's more to the story, according to the Map Men: Agloe was spotted on another company's map so they were taken to court by those who'd put it there as a trap, but it become a real place so they lost the case
Paper Towns? Hm sounds like an interesting title for a book.
thats poetic
Oh that's where you got the idea to your book paper towns!
Bro.. love tour content. Liked and subscribed!!