Hank Green

Or you burn out.

And you know who replaces you?

Anybody.

Because they all, for six months, they're just like, oh my God, somebody's listening to me.

They're laughing at my jokes.

They're paying attention.

Now I'm the person who I was watching and everybody wants it.

But what these platforms have realized is that

You could just have them last for six months and then burn through them.

There was a time when YouTube would talk about creator burnout, and that has all since receded.

I have this concept that there are things that we are required to ignore to participate in the information economy.

And one of them is that the reality of the media business is we are competing against an army of teenagers who will work for free on Instagram.

Yeah.

And every conversation I have with media people, we are required to ignore that.

the overabundance of supply that Instagram has to replace all of a sudden the drop of a hat.

Like no one has any leverage against these platforms because of the army of teenagers who will work for free.

And if you mention it, then all that's left is nihilism.

Like you can't, you have to ignore it so that people can pretend that they have like agency in their lives to make things.

I think that, but like, I think that you and I are trying to figure out what the business model looks like.

It's reflective of the, like, you know, think about how newspapers did this.