Tom Scott: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea", hN treats it as the go-to layperson-friendly argument against e-voting and links it in nearly every voting-technology thread.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2020–2026explainerHN treats it as the go-to layperson-friendly argument against e-voting and links it in nearly every voting-technology thread.
- 13 HN recommenders 10 months 2020–2024explainerThe default link in copyright and takedown threads, recommended as an excellent, comprehensive explanation of why automated enforcement and the law work as they do.
- 9 HN recommenders 9 months 2019–2026commentaryThe standard link when VPN marketing comes up, as a clear debunking of the scare tactics behind VPN ads.
- 9 HN recommenders 7 months 2021–2026explainerHN recommends it as a well-told chase of a weird fact that lands a rare interview with Lovelock at age 101.
- 3 HN recommenders 4 months 2019–2025explainerHN treats it as the obligatory video to share whenever plugs and sockets come up, praised for its safety reasoning.
- 6 HN recommenders 4 months 2021–2024explainerHN cites it as a clear explainer on sponsorship and ad disclosure rules and their inconsistency across media.
- 5 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2026explainerHN recommends it as a short, fascinating story of a scale model preventing a terrible engineering decision.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2026explainerCited whenever backup beepers and noise come up, as a clear explanation of the white-noise alternative.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2018–2024explainerUsed as the clearest short demonstration of why noisy, high-motion content is hard for video compression.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2013–2015explainerHN commenters link it as a short, friendly explanation of singular they and grammatical gender in discussions of pronoun usage.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2026explainerHN points to it whenever discussion turns to billionaire wealth or the human difficulty of grasping very large numbers.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2019talkRecommended as an entertaining story of a joke side project growing out of hand, brought up in threads on emoji and side projects.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2025explainerUsed as the go-to visual demonstration of A-pillar blind spots and badly designed junctions.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2022–2026documentaryRecommended in address and OCR threads as a look at the last human mail-coding operation.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2023–2024explainerHN likes the clear animation of how slip rings and piping let a house rotate.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2023–2025commentaryHN cites it for the argument that we cannot tell whether AI is early or late on its sigmoid curve until hindsight.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2018–2024talkHN links it as a charming defense of bodging and of AutoHotkey, and as the go-to example when custom keyboards or hotkey hacks come up.
- 3 HN recommenders 2 months 2021–2023explainerHN uses it as the short, clear explainer when discussions about greetings and small talk come up.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2025explainerHN links it as a popular, accessible introduction to indoor CO2 and its effect on thinking, in air quality threads.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2021explainerHN points to it in discussions of salary transparency as a short, well-sourced overview of how public tax records work in Nordic countries.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2024–2025explainerRecommended as a great example of early VR and pre-computer simulation.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2017–2026explainerThe go-to explainer whenever content filters wrongly flag innocent words, well made and short.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2025explainerHN commenters treat it as the standard short answer whenever UK taps come up.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2026commentaryShared in outage and accidental-deletion threads as a relatable, well-told horror story.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2021–2024documentaryRecommended in nuclear waste threads as a short, clear look at a real long-term storage solution.
- 3 HN recommenders 2 months 2022–2025explainerThe go-to short, accessible explainer for mains hum forensics, linked whenever recording authenticity or timestamps come up.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2021–2026explainerCited in automation and robotics threads as the example of a warehouse built robot-first.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2018–2023explainerHN links it as the standard answer to why phone hold music sounds poor.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2018–2023talkHN commenters cite it as the canonical thought experiment whenever authentication failures, account compromises or Google outages come up.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2025explainerHN points to it in discussions of AI copyright enforcement and badly specified AI goals, and recommends it alongside his other fiction.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2017–2024explainerThe go-to short explanation whenever lava lamps, entropy sources, or Cloudflare randomness come up.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2024demoMentioned as a delightful stunt whenever emoji input or keyboards come up.
- 2 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2026explainerThe go-to citation for why free, open APIs get shut down and for the fate of services like Yahoo Pipes.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2023–2024explainerLinked as a concise, accessible rebuttal whenever linguistic relativity comes up in a thread.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2013–2026comedy videoHN cites it as dystopian satire in threads on DRM, digital ownership, mind uploading and AI copyright, often noting it increasingly looks like reality.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2026explainerHN uses it as a short, clear explanation of implied meaning in conversation and the cooperative principle.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2026explainerHN uses it as a well-known example of infrastructure that must run forever to keep an area habitable.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2017–2021explainerHN cites it as the standard case study of how a small unchecked design change causes disaster, and of why engineering process and bureaucracy exist.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2025explainerHN cites it as an intuitive demonstration of the Coriolis effect and the practical problems of spinning habitats.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2026explainerShared as a short, interesting explainer on very long-lived financial instruments.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2023explainerCited as a quick, visual explanation of IEX's deliberate latency and of artificial delay as a fairness tool.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2024–2026explainerLinked as the accessible explanation of how moire navigation lights work.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2024explainerHN commenters cite it in discussions of punctuation, tone and emoji in chat as a short intro to how internet writing norms developed.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2026explainerHN links it whenever IDs, base64 or random identifier space come up, as a short and pleasant explainer.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2016–2023explainerHN links it as the original, interesting video behind the 'deadliest river' stories and as an extreme river example.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2018–2023explainerUsed to illustrate that the standard targets consistency rather than taste, and to discuss what standardization is for.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2022explainerHN uses it as the go-to example of low-speed vehicle infrastructure in a US suburb, in threads on e-bikes, EVs and autonomous cars.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2023explainerHN cites it as a fascinating explanation of a real Dutch auction, in threads about auctions and ticket sales.
- cited 7× 0 months 2019–2023explainerHN cites it whenever grid storage or pumped hydro comes up, as an accessible example of storage at scale.
- cited 3× 0 months 2020–2025explainerCited as an example of quirks caused by non-geographic maps and design choices in transit systems.
- cited 3× 0 months 2022–2023commentaryHN mentions it as an example of a prominent creator publicly correcting a popular myth, and of the fire brigade myth itself.
- cited 4× 0 months 2023–2026explainerHN commenters cite it to explain why legal deposit should be complete rather than selective.
- cited 16× 0 months 2021–2025explainerThe standard reference whenever threads discuss electrifying trucking via overhead lines instead of big batteries.
- cited 7× 0 months 2018–2026explainerCited as an example of colors too vibrant for monitors and pigments outside the sRGB gamut.
- cited 4× 0 months 2020–2026explainerLinked as a relevant explainer in threads about Windows quirks and reserved names.
- cited 7× 0 months 2023–2025demoGo-to reference in EV threads for showing that battery swapping already works in practice.
- cited 7× 0 months 2017–2021explainerHN links it whenever ThyssenKrupp's Multi or paternoster lifts come up, as the clearest look at the working test tower.
- cited 3× 0 months 2019–2023explainerCited to show that helium is not actually running out, and for background on the federal reserve.
- cited 4× 0 months 2024–2025explainerCited in subtitle threads for its explanation of why subtitles are condensed and adapted rather than literal.
- cited 4× 0 months 2023–2024comedy videoLinked as an example of the honest, self-aware way Tom Scott treats VPN ads and their legitimate use cases.
Questions
Which Tom Scott video does Hacker News recommend most?
Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea: recommended in 11 different months by 11 HN users between 2020 and 2026.
Is this every Tom Scott 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.