Ben Eater: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "8-bit computer update", hN repeatedly recommends the series it launched as the best way to understand how a CPU works, praised for Eater's clear teaching.
- 14 HN recommenders 12 months 2017–2023videoHN repeatedly recommends the series it launched as the best way to understand how a CPU works, praised for Eater's clear teaching.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2019–2026tutorialHN repeatedly recommends it as the best hands-on way to understand how a CPU and a computer work from first principles.
- 8 HN recommenders 7 months 2019–2024tutorialHN recommends it as a clear, from-scratch look at how video hardware works, understandable with just basic logic knowledge.
- 7 HN recommenders 6 months 2021–2025tutorialHN commenters recommend it as a clear, comprehensive explanation of USB signaling and keyboard polling.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2023explainerHN commenters prefer it over other transistor explanations as an enlightening starting point that leads into building logic gates and a CPU.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2023tutorialRecommended as the key video for understanding control logic and microcode.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2023tutorialHN people recommend Ben Eater's videos for easy, clear explanations of digital logic and building computers.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2022explainerRecommended as the answer to why breadboard computers are worth building and why breadboards work at these speeds.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2020tutorialRecommended as an accessible, educational build that anyone with basic logic knowledge can follow.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021tutorialHN commenters point to it as the clearest explanation of the PS/2 protocol, usually when keyboard interfaces come up.
Questions
Which Ben Eater video does Hacker News recommend most?
8-bit computer update: recommended in 12 different months by 14 HN users between 2017 and 2023.
Is this every Ben Eater video?
No. Only videos that at least three different HN users linked, in at least three different months, with at least a sentence of their own commentary. That filter is what makes the list useful.
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.