DIY Perks: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "Building a realistic artificial sun (for dark winter days)", whenever HN discusses seasonal affective disorder, myopia, or bright home lighting, people point to this as the most convincing buildable example of sunlight-like illumination.
- 9 HN recommenders 8 months 2020–2025demoWhenever HN discusses seasonal affective disorder, myopia, or bright home lighting, people point to this as the most convincing buildable example of sunlight-like illumination.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2019–2025tutorialHN points to it in threads on artificial sunlight, as a buildable and surprisingly convincing artificial window.
- 5 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2026tutorialWhenever eye contact in video calls comes up, commenters point to this as the cheap homemade teleprompter-style solution.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2024tutorialCommenters cite it as a well-made, practical example of USB-C conversion when they discuss hacking USB-C into devices.
Questions
Which DIY Perks video does Hacker News recommend most?
Building a realistic artificial sun (for dark winter days): recommended in 8 different months by 9 HN users between 2020 and 2025.
Is this every DIY Perks 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.