The battle cry of the misosophist.

NDGT is, among other things, a science educator -the role he currently enjoys the most popularity for -- and he tends to get the science right. You may disagree with his style but when you say that he is "not to be taken seriously"; it sounds like you are disagreeing with the substance.

In this particular video, NDGT was asked a very difficult question (difficult because there tends to be an awful lot to unpack) by a young person. Many scientists and rationalists believe that particular question to be a non-question as "meaning" is subjective. In his opinion It is not reasonable to expect to find a single definitive answer (e.g. 42) or to waste ones existence expecting "THE Answer" to be packaged neatly and handed to you, or discovered by you. Hence:

"...you create you own meaning"

Rather than dismiss the boy's question or squash his innate curiosity he suggested exploration of his environment as a place to start. Exploration with tools that are readily available to a 6 and 3/4 year old. He then offered some suggestions and gave hints as to the fact that different objects (elements) have different physical properties. (Aluminum vs steel pans etc.) Which should lead to the more meaningful questions (from a naturalists point of view). Why do they sound different? In what other ways might they be similar or different? Which maybe leads to a young mind embracing the scientific method of inquiry. Maybe, that boy becomes the one to cure cancer. Maybe someone gets a hold of him and convinces him that "god(s) did it" and he lives out the rest of his life in arrogant confidence -afraid to ask the difficult questions or intimidated into silence.

NDGT is a science educator and in my opinion one of the better ones since Feynman and Sagan. This video is an example of him tailoring his answer to the level of understanding of the young boy that asked the question. He gave the boy an answer that doesn't end the conversation and attempts to respect the spirit of the question and the individual asking it.

You've shared what you saw in that short video encounter. Now, I've shared what I saw.

Congrats on your family psychology degree. I've got a couple pretty pieces of paper up on my I-Love-Me-Wall, as well; none of which should add any authority to anything I say --or, what I type on a video game forum.