Mark Rober: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "Feeding Bill Gates a Fake Burger (to save the world)", hN commenters cite it as a short, accessible overview of the climate and water case for plant-based meat.
- 3 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2023explainerHN commenters cite it as a short, accessible overview of the climate and water case for plant-based meat.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2023–2024demoHN commenters cite it as the clearest look at Zipline's real-world drone operations, especially for medical delivery and the solved noise problem.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2019–2023demoRecommended as a fun, semi-technical intro to machine learning that holds kids' attention.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2018–2024demoLinked as the funny, famous porch-pirate revenge video whenever package theft comes up, with the faked-reactions caveat noted.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2023–2025explainerHN commenters point to it as a fun, research-grounded explainer whenever bed bug threads come up.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2017–2020demoHN calls it a great, impressive engineering project involving real-time trajectory calculation.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2022–2024demoOffered as a satisfying example of fighting back against scam call centers.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2025–2026demoHN uses it as the reference demonstration in lidar versus camera debates, though some critics fault its methodology and style.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2018–2025demoHN mentions it as the famous, kid-delighting demo of fluidization, especially in sand battery and industrial process threads.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2023demoCited in threads on rigged arcade machines and gambling-like games as the clearest demonstration that skill games can be tuned to be unwinnable.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2022demoHN mentions it in robocall and scam threads as an entertaining look at how phone scams work and how vigilantes fight back.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2024demoHN brings it up as the obligatory link whenever package theft or booby-trapped parcels come up.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2024demoCited in porch-pirate threads as the definitive revenge-engineering project, praised for its impressive engineering.
- cited 4× 0 months 2023–2025demoUsed as an example of how easy homing and guidance have become, resembling precision-guided munitions.
- cited 3× 0 months 2022–2023demoCommenters link the glitter bomb series whenever package theft comes up.
Questions
Which Mark Rober video does Hacker News recommend most?
Feeding Bill Gates a Fake Burger (to save the world): recommended in 5 different months by 3 HN users between 2020 and 2023.
Is this every Mark Rober 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.