The 100 most recommended videos on Hacker News
Out of 6,454 videos that cleared the bar (three people, three months, real commentary), these hundred have the longest and deepest record of recommendations. Most are evergreen; a few are "partly dated" and say so on their page.
- 17 HN recommenders 18 months 2018–2026HN's go-to recommendation for learning linear algebra intuition, repeatedly credited with making concepts click and complementing textbooks.
- 17 HN recommenders 18 months 2013–2026HN recommends it repeatedly as one of the best and most entertaining programming talks, and as the talk that makes the Y combinator click, even for people who do not use Ruby.
- 19 HN recommenders 18 months 2016–2024A Andor Gafotas · talkHN repeatedly calls it the best in-depth introduction to IC manufacturing, a sense-of-awe talk by an independent engineer, while wishing for an updated version.
- 17 HN recommenders 16 months 2020–2025HN treats it as the canonical, near-universally recommended lecture on giving talks and presentations.
- 17 HN recommenders 16 months 2022–2025HN treats it as the best starting point for really understanding backprop and neural nets, because Karpathy explains the why with intuition and builds everything in code.
- 13 HN recommenders 17 months 2018–2026HN repeatedly recommends it as a master class in limited-palette pixel art and palette cycling, from an artist behind Loom and Monkey Island.
- 15 HN recommenders 16 months 2017–2025S Видео с мероприятий {speach! · talkIt is HN's standard answer to why Python cannot easily get much faster, and is recommended by people who work on JITs and alternative runtimes.
- 12 HN recommenders 15 months 2014–2026HN repeatedly calls it the clearest introduction to waves and transmission-line behavior, better than modern explainers.
- 17 HN recommenders 15 months 2020–2026HN treats it as the definitive, compassionate documentary on why people fall into conspiracy theories.
- 15 HN recommenders 15 months 2012–2026One of the most consistently recommended lecture series on HN, praised as fascinating, funny and eye-opening about human behavior across many scales.
- 18 HN recommenders 17 months 2014–2026P Principles by Ray Dalio · explainerHN repeatedly recommends it as the best layperson overview of debt, credit and economic cycles.
- 15 HN recommenders 15 months 2015–2025HN treats it as a top-tier programming talk for learning refactoring and for the wrong-abstraction principle, recommended repeatedly over a decade.
- 16 HN recommenders 15 months 2018–2025HN's default recommendation for understanding the Fourier transform intuitively; many say it was the explanation that made it click.
- 17 HN recommenders 15 months 2013–2024Held up as a marvel of pedagogy and the best explanation of differentials, recommended again and again.
- 16 HN recommenders 14 months 2019–2024It is HN's favorite pitch for Elixir and the BEAM, credited with convincing many people to adopt them.
- 9 HN recommenders 13 months 2015–2025J Jason Salotti · lectureRepeatedly called the best way to understand ADHD, and recommended to anyone before commenting on it.
- 14 HN recommenders 14 months 2022–2026HN treats it as the canonical talk on software complexity, shared constantly and recommended to every programmer regardless of language.
- 11 HN recommenders 15 months 2012–2025HN commenters repeatedly recommend it as the talk that finally made quantum mechanics click, especially for programmers.
- 15 HN recommenders 15 months 2016–2025HN treats it as the standard short summary of how power and political incentives work, applied to governments, companies and workplaces.
- 15 HN recommenders 14 months 2019–2026U UChicago Social Sciences · lectureHN users repeatedly say it changed how they think about writing, calling it a masterclass useful far beyond academia.
- 16 HN recommenders 14 months 2015–2025HN commenters repeatedly name it as the best explanation of the JS event loop and the first thing to watch before tackling async code.
- 16 HN recommenders 14 months 2017–2025HN treats it as the standard first stop for learning neural networks, praised for making the math intuitive.
- 15 HN recommenders 14 months 2015–2026HN's go-to recommendation for colormap and color-perception questions; commenters call it funny, brief, clear and a favorite talk.
- 3 HN recommenders 12 months 2016–2024HN commenters repeatedly say it changed how they hear political speech and recommend it for understanding why opponents are not simply stupid.
- 17 HN recommenders 15 months 2021–2026HN's default recommendation for a friendly, thorough introduction to heat pumps and why they are so efficient.
- 15 HN recommenders 14 months 2015–2026G gimpymoo · documentaryHN recommends it often as an entertaining and authentic dramatization of Sinclair versus Acorn, the story from which ARM grew.
- 16 HN recommenders 13 months 2021–2026HN repeatedly calls it one of the best math and graphics explainers on YouTube, praised for bridging game dev and math.
- 13 HN recommenders 13 months 2016–2026D David Lessig · documentaryHN recommends it often and strongly as an eye-opening account of marketing psychology and the engineering of consumer society.
- 16 HN recommenders 14 months 2019–2025The most-recommended balanced take on systemd, from a BSD perspective, handed to anyone caught up in the systemd debate.
- 15 HN recommenders 13 months 2019–2026Y You Gotta Love Frontend · talkThe most recommended introduction to Svelte, credited with sparking its adoption.
- 9 HN recommenders 13 months 2017–2026HN repeatedly recommends it as a talk that changed how people model data, with ideas that apply well beyond Elm to any typed language.
- 10 HN recommenders 12 months 2019–2024F Farm Transparency Project · documentaryHN commenters push it, often forcefully, as the video to watch to see what factory farming really involves, and some say it changed their diet.
- 15 HN recommenders 13 months 2017–2026F FL Studio · explainerHN calls it the gold-standard debunking of audiophile myths and the stair-step misconception, and recommends it as a primer on digital audio.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2016–2024P pannenkoek2012 · explainerHeld up as a legendary deep dive into game internals, explained lucidly and with humor, and a gateway to the channel.
- 14 HN recommenders 12 months 2017–2023HN repeatedly recommends the series it launched as the best way to understand how a CPU works, praised for Eater's clear teaching.
- 16 HN recommenders 13 months 2017–2023M MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center · lectureRecommended again and again as the best accessible overview of fusion physics, useful for judging fusion announcements and understanding why high-temperature superconducting magnets matter.
- 14 HN recommenders 12 months 2009–2026HN returns to it repeatedly as the best single introduction to understanding clinical depression.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2022–2026It is the go-to recommendation for anyone who wants to genuinely understand Bezier curves and splines, and commenters repeatedly call it one of the best programming-related educational videos.
- 11 HN recommenders 12 months 2013–2025One of the most frequently recommended online lecture series on HN, praised for giving people vocabulary to examine ethical positions and for Sandel's skilled teaching.
- 15 HN recommenders 11 months 2011–2026L Landon Proctor · documentaryA perennial HN recommendation, brought up whenever sampling, copyright or music history comes up, often described as a must-watch.
- 7 HN recommenders 11 months 2017–2025HN repeatedly recommends it as an entertaining, mind-opening talk on allocator design and composable generic programming.
- 11 HN recommenders 13 months 2015–2024N Numberphile2 · interviewHN recommends it as the best readily available interview with Simons, notable for his emphasis on luck and a humble approach to success.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2018–2025Praised as a brilliant, deadpan and inventive hardware hack, and a good starting point for Tom7's videos.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2010–2024The most-linked YouTube video on HN, recommended as an in-depth explanation of fructose metabolism.
- 13 HN recommenders 11 months 2020–2024R Rob Walling · talkIt is the go-to talk HN commenters recommend to anyone asking about bootstrapping, SaaS pricing, or choosing bootstrapping over VC.
- 17 HN recommenders 12 months 2024–2026Frequently recommended in autonomous vehicle and Waymo threads as the main counterargument, a long but worthwhile video essay on how self-driving cars could affect cities.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2021–2026T TNMoC · lectureHN calls it mandatory viewing on the AGC, praising the speaker's enthusiasm and the clear account of restartable, robust software design.
- 13 HN recommenders 11 months 2007–2015HN returns to it for years as an inspirational talk to send to graduates, founders and anyone at a career crossroads.
- 12 HN recommenders 13 months 2018–2025It is HN's most frequently recommended starting point for quantum computing because it avoids pop-science hand-waving and needs only basic linear algebra.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2013–2025G grapefrukt · talkThe go-to recommendation on game feel and polish, cited by HN as one of the best talks for anyone making interactive things feel good.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2012–2025G GoogleFOSSSydney · talkHN returns to it for years as an elegant introduction to writing a lexer that is easy to follow even without a parsing background.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2019–2026HN repeatedly recommends it as the best hands-on way to understand how a CPU and a computer work from first principles.
- 11 HN recommenders 12 months 2017–2026HN repeatedly recommends it as an amazing talk that derives the essence of Lisp and shows miniKanren-style program synthesis.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2018–2024T The Artificial Intelligence Channel · talkHN regularly calls it mind-blowing and recommends it as an introduction to Levin's work on bioelectricity and regeneration.
- 11 HN recommenders 12 months 2011–2020It is HN's default recommendation for learning linear algebra, praised for Strang's teaching and for building real understanding useful in machine learning.
- 15 HN recommenders 12 months 2021–2025HN repeatedly recommends it as the definitive, mind-changing explanation of dishwasher use, even though it runs over 30 minutes.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2014–2024HN treats it as the canonical talk on simulation testing and a mind-blowing example of how far rigorous testing can go.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2014–2026HN has recommended it for a decade as the standard explainer on automation and unemployment, though skeptics later cite it as an example of overconfident predictions.
- 9 HN recommenders 11 months 2016–2026HN repeatedly recommends it as the deepest public look at how iCloud Keychain and Apple's device and cloud security are designed.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2018–2024D DevTernity Conference · talkHN repeatedly calls it the best talk on testing, and many say it changed how they approach tests, mocks and the meaning of a unit.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2013–2025R Rui Oliveira · talkIt is HN's go-to recommendation for the case that programming environments should give instant feedback, and it appears in nearly every thread on live coding, visual programming or developer tools.
- 5 HN recommenders 11 months 2014–2025Commenters repeatedly name it the best explanation of how internet fame, mobs and outrage work, and cite it in threads about harassment and public figures.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2019–2026D DRS_Education · documentaryHeavily recommended as a masterpiece of popular science and the classic illustration of how fragile interdependent systems are, trotted out in every blackout or supply chain thread.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2011–2025HN repeatedly names it the best resource on API design, a staple answer to any 'how do I design an API' question.
- 7 HN recommenders 10 months 2013–2025Held up as the landmark demoscene production and a counterpoint to software bloat.
- 10 HN recommenders 12 months 2010–2023HN commenters send it as a short antidote to cynicism, showing long-term global progress and the shrinking gap between rich and poor countries.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2014–2025E Excelsior10000 · documentaryHN commenters repeatedly recommend it as a beautiful, approachable explanation of analog mechanical computation, and many have rewatched it.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2014–2026It is the go-to funny, accessible explanation of why you should never implement datetime handling yourself, linked in nearly every timezone thread.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2014–2023HN commenters cite it as the talk that convinced them of immutability and functional programming.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2015–2026T The Documentary Network · documentaryHN commenters recommend it as an intimate, embedded look at late-90s web history and the spirit of building something important under pressure.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2017–2026J Joey Reid · talkHN treats it as a classic, near-mandatory talk on how programming tools and paradigms stagnated and which older ideas deserve revival.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2014–2025D Dutch Game Garden · talkA perennial recommendation for anyone learning game feel and juice, praised for showing concrete steps that turn a bland prototype into a satisfying game.
- 8 HN recommenders 11 months 2017–2021G Gapminder Foundation · lectureHN repeatedly recommends it to counter overpopulation alarm with data on falling birth rates.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2020–2024HN recommends it as the canonical video on how music theory is really the theory of one Western tradition, with the raga example.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2020–2026HN treats it as the go-to layperson-friendly argument against e-voting and links it in nearly every voting-technology thread.
- 4 HN recommenders 10 months 2017–2021HN people cite it constantly as the clearest explanation of normalization of deviance and how complex systems drift toward failure.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2019–2025M Metosin · talkHN treats it as the standard answer to why FP isn't mainstream and why languages succeed.
- 16 HN recommenders 10 months 2019–2025HN treats it as the best real-world AAA example of ECS and game netcode, and cites it constantly in discussions of data-oriented design.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2020–2025G Google DeepMind · documentaryHN commenters call it a moving, well-made human story about AI and Go that works for non-technical viewers and does not date.
- 14 HN recommenders 11 months 2018–2025HN commenters send people to it whenever nulls, Maybe/Option or static typing come up, as a thoughtful dissent from the type-system orthodoxy that changes how some people model data.
- 15 HN recommenders 11 months 2017–2024The go-to recommended video for newcomers wanting a clear, visual explanation of how Bitcoin and blockchains work.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2018–2025HN commenters repeatedly recommend it in longevity and aging threads as a concise, fun case for fighting aging.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2017–2026R Regent University School of Law · lectureHN treats it as the canonical video to link whenever talking to police or interrogations come up.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2008–2023C Carnegie Mellon University · lecturePerennially recommended as an inspirational talk for people facing setbacks or choosing a direction, and a source of oft-quoted lines like the brick wall.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2019–2025M melodysheep · documentaryHN people recommend it as a stunning, mind-bending and existentially humbling view of deep time, and it appears on lists of favorite YouTube videos.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2019–2025L Living Web Farms · talkHN commenters call it their favorite introduction to regenerative agriculture, and several say it changed how they garden or farm.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2019–2025C Clojure/north · talkHN repeatedly recommends it as a fantastic demonstration of procedural, OOP and FP approaches to the same problem, and of functional core and imperative shell.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2012–2023HN commenters frequently recommend it as an eye-opening case against heavy porn use, though it is contested science.
- 13 HN recommenders 10 months 2024–2026HN treats it as the go-to visual introduction to transformers, and many say it finally made attention and embeddings click.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2022–2025P Principles by Ray Dalio · explainerHN commenters recommend it as a clear framework for placing the current US and world situation within historical debt and empire cycles.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2019–2026HN people recommend the SICP lectures as a deeper, livelier route into the book and a formative course even for seasoned programmers.
- 13 HN recommenders 10 months 2020–2024The default link in copyright and takedown threads, recommended as an excellent, comprehensive explanation of why automated enforcement and the law work as they do.
- 8 HN recommenders 11 months 2018–2025A perennial HN recommendation for outage and postmortem threads, praised as funny, educational and one of the best postmortems anyone has seen.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2021–2026M Mossie Fly · lectureHN brings it up in any thread about autopilot, Tesla FSD, self-driving cars and crashes as the classic lecture on automation dependency.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2011–2017A perennial HN recommendation whenever lobbying, SOPA, taxes or political corruption come up, with several commenters saying it changed their views.
- 12 HN recommenders 11 months 2012–2024HN's go-to short explainer for the City of London versus London, cited in many finance and UK threads.
- 14 HN recommenders 12 months 2020–2025D DevGAMM · talkIt is the standard link in HN threads about software decay, lost knowledge and fragile technological civilization.
- 11 HN recommenders 10 months 2010–2024Recommended whenever APL or array languages come up as the quickest way to see why the paradigm is so striking.
- 12 HN recommenders 10 months 2010–2024T The Qualcomm Institute · talkRecommended for years as the best technical introduction to memristors from the person who found the physical device.
- 9 HN recommenders 10 months 2018–2026HN commenters recommend it as a pointed critique of philanthropy and win-win thinking, delivered inside Google itself, and cite it across threads on wealth, tax and tech power.
Questions
What is the most recommended YouTube video on Hacker News?
Vectors | Chapter 1, Essence of linear algebra by 3Blue1Brown, recommended in 18 different months by 17 HN users between 2018 and 2026. HN's go-to recommendation for learning linear algebra intuition, repeatedly credited with making concepts click and complementing textbooks.
How is 'best' decided?
By HackerTube's score: the number of distinct months in which an HN comment recommended the video, plus half a point for every month with a strong recommendation. It rewards videos that people kept recommending for years over one-off spikes.
Why are there no view counts in the ranking?
Because YouTube popularity is exactly what the list is trying to get away from. A video with 40,000 views that twelve different HN users insisted on over eight years ranks above a viral clip linked once.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.