What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future Hank Green Still Believes
Mar 20, 2026
Hank Green, YouTuber and educator behind Crash Course, SciShow, and Complexly, explains why he made Complexly a nonprofit. He talks about nuance in viral science stories. He critiques attention-driven platforms and explores YouTube’s educational potential and misinformation risks. He discusses AI as personalized media, teaching attention literacy, and the challenges of building platform alternatives.
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Salience Explains Viral Internet Content
- Attention is driven by salience, not truth, which explains why visceral hooks and simple stories dominate online media.
- Hank Green explains dashcam, cute, fear, and hope as salience engines that platforms exploit to keep attention.
Complexly Chose Impact Over Paywalls
- Complexly started as an educational media company focused on lowering barriers to understanding with Crash Course and SciShow.
- Hank describes repeatedly refusing paywall strategies and advertiser deals that would increase revenue but reduce educational impact.
Avoid Monetization That Erodes Mission
- Avoid monetization paths that reduce mission impact, even if they seem lucrative, because they change future decision-making and ownership incentives.
- Hank warns selling educational assets or layering paywalls can steer a company away from its core public mission.