Video summary
The narrator begins by reflecting on his internal conflict regarding giving away free items, weighing the desire to help those in need against the belief that earning something brings unique satisfaction. This philosophical musing leads him to a deeply personal story about why he is gifting a custom-built PC to a young girl named Evie in Canada, whom he has never met. The decision stems from a realization triggered by reading a self-help book about daily improvement and a subsequent frustrating lunch conversation with his sister. He realized that their relationship had stagnated over the years, compounded by a lack of meaningful interaction and a shared history of competition rather than connection, leaving them in what he describes as a "pathetic reality" of siblinghood where they barely know each other's lives.
Digging deeper into the past, the narrator explains that their strained bond was not due to malice but rather a childhood environment dominated by his father's yelling and a dynamic where both siblings felt forced to compete for parental approval. He admits that as an older brother, he was jealous of the attention his younger sister received and failed to notice how he was inadvertently torturing their relationship through neglect and competition. Now that his father has passed away and his mother lives far away, Evie is essentially his only remaining family member, yet their connection remains dry and distant. He worries that if other siblings continue to fight over trivial things like toys, it could evolve into the same emotional distance he fears exists between him and his sister, a prospect he finds deeply troubling at age thirty.
To address this issue, the narrator shares a tweet he saw about a brother refusing to let his sister play on the computer, viewing it as a potential turning point for their relationship. He decided to build Evie a powerful gaming PC featuring Intel Arc graphics cards, which he praises for their budget-friendly price and advanced features like AV1 encoding that benefit streamers and content creators. After she received the computer, they played Valorant together, and while he supports her ambition to go pro, his primary goal is to use this gesture to bridge the gap between them. He hopes that by giving her the tool she wants, he can encourage both Evie and her brother to spend quality time together, proving that they care for one another enough to play games and interact, even if they do not need to be best friends. Ultimately, he wishes to make amends for the lost years of neglect and ensure that their relationship does not remain distant for decades to come.
Read the full video transcript
I feel conflicted about giving stuff
away for free on one hand I feel like
life sometimes kicks people a little too
hard and they can use the pick me up and
on the other hand I feel like when you
give something away for free you could
be robbing someone of the satisfaction
they get from when they earn it
themselves that's why I want to give
away stuff now I try to do it with a
good reason
this is Evie and she's going to be
receiving a computer that I built for
her and I have a good reason for giving
it to her but the reason is something
that is so important to me that it
didn't feel right to sit here and
explain it to you at my gaming setup
like it doesn't bother me that much
because this is something that at almost
30 years old has been bothering me for
I guess my whole life so without further
Ado here is why this random girl in
Canada who I have never met before is
getting a PC
recently I was
trying to read this self-help book
because
I was trying to help myself
I saw this one line that was super
inspiring and it said
every day you get one percent better
or one percent worse and it was
basically talking about how every day
you make these little choices that
compound and to a bigger result
and at first I was totally behind it I
was like yeah if you go to the gym every
day
you know eventually you're going to be
in shape
or if you invest a little bit of money
every time you get a paycheck when you
retire you can have a lot more to fall
back on so the concept seemed super
positive to me
but then I was sitting at lunch with my
sister we were talking and talking the
whole lunch
and then I realized as we were walking
out that I had just had the most
useless
and meaningless conversation that I
think I had ever had
I want to be clear I don't hate my
sister
but it just felt that we ate our food
and
we didn't really talk about anything
that mattered
[Applause]
at first it only bothered me a little
but then my brain which loves to give me
the
most positive thought at every given
moment was like
every day you get one percent better or
one percent worse
so on the drive back I tried cramming
quality time
asking her things like how are you doing
are you happy he's
life what you expected it would be
and the conversation just didn't work
at all and to be honest it makes sense
because me and her don't really have
that kind of relationship
and then when I asked myself why I don't
have a better relationship with my
sister my brain came in again like a
superhero
it was just like every day you get one
percent better
or one percent worse and that's when it
hit me
that I have compounded a very
shitty relationship with my sister we
may not hate each other
but we don't know what's going on in
each other's lives
not to any actual meaningful detail
and in my opinion
we both live a very pathetic reality of
what it's like to be a brother and a
sister but that's not her fault
and I don't blame her in the slightest
when we were growing up we were yelled
at a lot we weren't necessarily expected
to be perfect but
we were expected to be as close as
possible to it my dad would yell at us
all the time and when my sister had
enough of my dad what would I the only
other male presence in her life do
ignore her treat her like and not
listen to anything that she had to say
when she had a complain or when she
wasn't feeling well it's not like I
wanted to be a horrible older brother
but we were both just so busy competing
to be the best in what our parents
expected us to be and I was probably so
jealous of the treatment she got being a
younger sibling
that I'd never even noticed that I was
just torturing a relationship and so now
my dad is passed away my mom lives on
the other side of the world and my
sister who lives with me being the only
family that I have left
is
a very dry and non-existent relationship
I've said that a million times already
my point is that nowadays when I see
siblings fight
over something small like a toy
most people are going to see that and
think that it's cute or it's funny but
for me I can't help but wonder if that
is something that turns out to be what I
have with my sister now 10 or 20 30
years from whatever they're going
through at the moment even if it's the
smallest thing
I worry about it that's why when uh
I saw this tweet last week on my
timeline what most people probably saw
as cute and relatable
I saw as
a potential moment in time where
something changes
it could completely alter the course of
that relationship going forward I know
it sounds stupid to most people and if
you're still listening to this you
probably think that it's not that deep
if you are one of those people I get it
it's just that almost 30 year old me
hates like I
hate my relationship with my sister and
I don't want that for anybody else
there's not a lot of things that I care
about
not because I'm sad but because as you
get older you start to realize that
there are only a few things in life that
you should actually spend your time
giving up about
you come closer
oh dear
yeah
is weird yeah uh I said if I could have
a computer
why because I wanted to find Valor it
and you wanted to go pro right yeah
to a computer
so go downstairs and check it out wait
wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
oh
hi
wow wow
thank you so after she got the PC her
and her brother played some Valor and
per my request and then Evie sent me
this message thank you so much Chris for
this brand new piece
now before I respond to you Evie I do
need to say thank you to Intel because
without them this video would not have
been possible and in this video
specifically we are featuring their
Intel Arc series cards which is the same
card that's inside your PC I mean this
probably goes without saying but this is
by far the coolest presentation I've
ever had for a computer part in my
entire life if you're in the market for
new graphics cards there are a few
reasons why you should check out the
Intel Arc series cards number one is the
encoding not only do these graphics
cards have quick sync but they also have
av1 encoding if you have no idea what I
just said let me explain it in simple
terms with av1 encoding you can record
video files and keep them at a much
smaller size while still retaining
really good quality this is going to
save you a ton of space on your drives
on top of that right now if you are a
streamer the quick sync encoding option
in OBS or other broadcast software is
actually better than nvink so if you're
looking to do some content creation it's
definitely something you should consider
the second reason which is huge is that
these cards are budget friendly
unfortunately we live in a timeline
where people are getting numb to the
fact that graphics cards cost above a
thousand dollars to play top tier games
and that is something that should change
friendly reminder a thousand dollars
plus for a graphics card is a lot of
money if you're looking for something
that is budget friendly and still meets
your gaming needs Intel art cards are
something that you need to take a look
at these are great cards for the price
and if you're new to PC Building and
you're looking to pick up something new
for yourself please check them out okay
so Evie listen up
I don't care if you go pro I know that
sounds mean but hear me out I think it's
amazing that you have the ambition to do
it and if it's something that you're
really passionate about I support you
completely look what I care about more
than anything is what I hope that
computer will do for you and your
brother's relationship long story short
I love my younger sister I support her
as much as I can right now but that
doesn't negate the 20 plus years of me
not being a good brother to her in the
past I wasn't horrible but I definitely
didn't try to make time to spend with
her like I did for some of my other
friends which is a shame because those
are years that I should have spent
solidifying my relationship with her as
her older brother a lot of people
including myself have this weird view of
family members where we feel like we can
treat them worse or get away with
treating them poorly because they're
family I am guilty of that and I wish I
wasn't I look back and I wish I spent
time with her we had things in common
that we could have done together
we just didn't so when I saw your
uncle's tweet my initial reaction was I
do not want that for them to look the
computer is yours now you do whatever
you want with it but please do me a
favor
play Valerian with your brother once in
a while and if he's watching this I hope
that he makes the time to play with you
too you guys don't have to be best
friends but show that you care about
each other enough to where you're
willing to spend some time together