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I Wasn't Always Like This!!

2025-11-21 · letter vlog · Hank · 6:33 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Projects, Science & nature, Internet & YouTube) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion, fundraising ask

Hank tells John that years of making educational videos built his curiosity like a muscle and taught him that science is people having structured conversations with the universe; on the last day of Complexly's Learnathon he asks for support and urges viewers to indulge curiosity instead of letting algorithms feed them fear and outrage.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — How making videos turned Hank's curiosity into a strong muscle, and why being interested is the opposite of depression

  • ★★★ Hank says he was not always like this: he was a nerd who liked having learned things, but years of making videos and podcasts trained his curiosity like a muscle and changed how his brain notices oddities. — 00:00:00 · curiosity
  • ★★ Hank repeats that he thinks curiosity is one of the top two human emotions. — 00:00:00 · curiosity
  • ★ Hank recalls another creator envying his knack for finding interesting video topics; he replied that they do it too, just in line with their audience and career. — 00:00:44
  • ★★★ Hank wants others to fall down the same hill of curiosity, believing their lives will be better as his is, because being interested is like the opposite of depression. — 00:01:14 · curiosity

00:01:43 — What science is: asking the universe questions in ways structured to get good answers

  • ★★ Hank says that when he did science in labs he thought science was the pile of known things plus techniques like spectroscopy, replication and the scientific method. — 00:01:43

  • ★★★ Hank says his job taught him that science is asking the universe questions in a way structured to get good answers back: people having conversations with the universe, something everyone, even babies, does. — 00:02:12

    “Science is people having conversations with the universe.”

  • ★★ Hank says what we call science is the structures built to ask better questions (methods, statistics, replication, open data), essential because it is easy to think you are doing good science when you are not. — 00:02:41

00:03:10 — Where his perspectives came from: rabbit holes, colleagues, science communicators, and Complexly explained

  • ★★★ Hank says curiosity makes everything feel more alive, uncertainty and problems less scary, and other people and himself more interesting. — 00:03:10 · curiosity
  • ★★ Hank says he reached these views through rabbit holes, conversations with colleagues, hosting videos written by others and reading books he would never otherwise have read, and his life is much better for it. — 00:03:10
  • ★★ Hank says he watches many science communicators on YouTube and learns both their subjects and their techniques. — 00:03:40 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank explains Complexly, the educational media company he and John started (SciShow, Crash Course, Eons): people who show up daily to wonder together and lower barriers to knowledge. — 00:03:40 · Complexly, SciShow, Crash Course, Eons, John Green

00:04:45 — Last day of the Complexly Learnathon: merch, the $60 products, and the share of the budget from supporters

  • ★★★ On the last day of the Complexly Learnathon, Hank shows hand-drawn logo shirts and asks viewers to support Complexly: $60 gets a Pelican pin, SciShow dice set, Endlings bandana or shirt, gone after today. — 00:04:45 · Complexly, Ask Hank Anything, Dear Hank and John, SciShow
  • ★★ Hank says nearly half of Complexly's budget now comes from people who choose to support its work. — 00:05:14 · Complexly
  • ★★ Hank says he spends a lot of time on YouTube because he thinks it is among the best content platforms and he feels more agency there; most of what he watches indulges curiosity. — 00:05:14 · YouTube

00:05:43 — Indulge curiosity rather than letting algorithms shape what we watch; thanks and sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says the best way to help Complexly and the world is to indulge curiosity and not let algorithms, which serve fear, anxiety and outrage to keep us engaged, shape our choices. — 00:05:43 · curiosity, recommender system, Complexly
  • ★ Hank thanks viewers who watch curiosity-driven content, asks others to watch it, and points supporters to the description links. — 00:06:13

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Complexly · curiosity · science

Also: Projects: Ask Hank Anything · Dear Hank and John · Endlings

Organizations: YouTube

Concepts: depression · moral outrage · recommender system · scientific method · statistics · Uncertainty

Only in the description or credits: Crash Course · Eons · SciShow

Also centred on science: Non-VIrgin...a Lexical Gap? · You are Probably Underestimating Jane Goodall’s Impact

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