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Tech pioneers & interviews: videos Hacker News recommends
Interviews and talks by tech figures: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, Alan Kay, Knuth, Carmack, Wozniak, Steve Yegge, keynotes and fireside chats about careers and ideas. Below: every video in this topic that at least three HN users linked with real commentary, in at least three different months (148 interviews, 107 talks, 33 podcast episodes), best-scored first, with the comments on each video page.
- 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.
- 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.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2012–2026P powerfuloutlet · talkA staple on must-watch lists, recommended as a starting point for Kay's thinking and for why software is often poor and ahistorical.
- 11 HN recommenders 10 months 2014–2026B Bill Pugh · talkHN considers it one of the best technical talks ever and cites it in discussions of language design, small cores and extensibility.
- 11 HN recommenders 10 months 2018–2026HN treats it as the standard one-hour teaser for the book and recommends it for its deep-modules thinking before buying or reading the book.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2016–2022P Paul Stringer's Mobile Tech · talkHN recommends it as an engaging overview of programming history and an argument for professional standards, citing the agile manifesto section and the claim that software has advanced little since the 1950s.
- 11 HN recommenders 10 months 2019–2025V Vintage Computer Federation · interviewHN commenters recommend it for Thompson's funny, first-hand Unix history stories, some of which even Kernighan had not heard.
- 11 HN recommenders 10 months 2012–2023HN recommends it as career and research advice on choosing important problems and doing first-class work.
- 9 HN recommenders 8 months 2007–2023HN repeatedly recommends it as the iconic explanation of why git is designed as it is and why distributed VCS beats centralized ones.
- 7 HN recommenders 10 months 2016–2025HN returns to it again and again as a demonstration of how programmable and composable 1970s systems were compared with today's.
- 10 HN recommenders 9 months 2017–2025Commenters offer it as a fascinating, accessible introduction to the world of fungi whenever mushrooms or mycelium come up.
- 7 HN recommenders 8 months 2018–2025Recommended as the best account of Blender's history and its user-focused approach as a free software success story.
- 8 HN recommenders 8 months 2013–2026M Marcel · demoHN treats it as an essential piece of computing history that shows how many modern interface ideas were already solved in 1968.
- 8 HN recommenders 8 months 2020–2023HN cites it whenever chip architecture, Moore's Law or CPU design comes up, as an unusually deep and accessible view from a top designer.
- 8 HN recommenders 8 months 2016–2023HN recommends it as a favourite tech talk full of good ideas from forgotten 1980s software, worth watching in full.
- 9 HN recommenders 8 months 2009–2023HN returns to it for motivation and perspective, and quotes it constantly, especially the connect-the-dots and remembering-death passages.
- 7 HN recommenders 8 months 2019–2025U UC Berkeley EECS · talkThe go-to citation in Moore's Law threads, a convincing counterargument from a top CPU designer.
- 8 HN recommenders 7 months 2018–2023Praised as a charismatic, engaging talk with practical security lessons, like why credit cards protect you better than debit cards.
- 7 HN recommenders 7 months 2014–2021A Adnan Hodzic · interviewHN returns to it as Linus's own explanation of why shipping software on Linux is hard and why he dislikes GPLv3.
- 7 HN recommenders 7 months 2012–2023HN commenters return to it as a worldview-shaping talk whose predictions about technology and startup ideas turned out to be prescient.
- 5 HN recommenders 6 months 2014–2025Adams fans repeatedly call it one of his best talks, a funny and moving look at extinction and the environment.
- 8 HN recommenders 7 months 2013–2026Frequently recommended as the clearest plain-language explanation of what a computer fundamentally is, with at least one commenter saying it changed how they think about programming.
- 6 HN recommenders 7 months 2015–2025HN repeatedly cites it as a thought-provoking talk on reducing software complexity and on the state of computing research.
- 2 HN recommenders 7 months 2016–2018S SXSW · talkHN returns to it repeatedly as one of the best candid talks on how a real self-driving system sees the road and where it struggles.
- 11 HN recommenders 8 months 2021–2024HN cites it as evidence of Musk's hands-on engineering depth and for his advice to question requirements and not optimize things that should not exist.
- 6 HN recommenders 7 months 2012–2018Q QuakeCon Official · talkHN rates his QuakeCon keynotes among the best technical talks, and cites this one for the VR segment and for his views on Linux gaming.
- Peter Thiel on "The Portal", Episode #001: "An Era of Stagnation & Universal Institutional Failure."8 HN recommenders 7 months 2019–2024HN people recommend it as a thought-provoking, wide-ranging case for the stagnation thesis, worth hearing even if you disagree with Thiel.
- 4 HN recommenders 6 months 2021–2025HN commenters point to it as an equation-free, charming way to hear Feynman explain physics to laypeople, including his famous refusal to explain magnetism with simple analogies.
- 6 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2021Praised as a long but rewarding conversation, with commenters especially liking Bach's emphasis on modelling as a skill and his bridge between mind and computation.
- 6 HN recommenders 7 months 2016–2026HN uses it in debates about what OOP originally meant, since Kay's message-passing view lines up with Erlang's processes.
- 3 HN recommenders 7 months 2018–2024It is HN's standard answer to questions on creativity, finding problems and PARC history, valued for Kay's thinking about thinking.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2012–2024S Silicon Valley Historical Association · interviewQuoted in threads on motivation, agency and regret as an encouraging reminder that the world can be changed.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2020–2026Treated as a must-watch for language designers, and cited whenever extensibility and language size are debated.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2019–2023HN people cite it as insight into how Twitter thought about moderation, and as a source for Tim Pool's arguments about uneven enforcement.
- 4 HN recommenders 6 months 2017–2025HN treats it as a foundational Bret Victor talk that reshaped how people think about software and interfaces, often cited alongside Dynamicland.
- 7 HN recommenders 5 months 2019–2026HN recommends it for Hotz's reasoning on cameras versus lidar and for an opinionated, original thinker's overview of comma and openpilot.
- 3 HN recommenders 6 months 2017–2024Frequently suggested in Ask HN threads on finding ideas, creativity and why incumbents like Xerox missed what they invented.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2014–2026D DEMO · talkHN commenters treat it as a thought-provoking talk on invention versus innovation, and cite it in discussions of software complexity and startups.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2011–2018Recommended as a short, fun talk on Node's philosophy and the reasons it was built that remains relevant.
- 6 HN recommenders 5 months 2013–2014Recommended as a great overview of what Bitcoin's protocol can do beyond simple payments, particularly contracts and smart property.
- 6 HN recommenders 5 months 2013–2025J Jeff Gonis · talkTreated as a foundational talk, cited constantly for Kay's views on object-oriented programming and for rethinking software practice.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2010–2025M Michael Lawrence · interviewHN uses it as the source of the 'bicycle for the mind' quote, which commenters cite in discussions of computing, programming and LLMs.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2025F funbury · lectureHN uses it to illustrate physical latency limits and why performance and distance matter in computing.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2016–2026HN fans call it one of Kay's best talks and recommend it for rethinking why programming paradigms have barely changed.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2010–2024M Micky Thompson · interviewHN commenters cite it whenever someone asks whether to quit a job or start a company, as a simple decision heuristic.
- 3 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2024Recommended as a long, rich first-hand account of Mach, NeXT and Apple history and of working for Steve Jobs.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2025T TheAppleFanBoy - Apple & Computer Archives · talkHN readers recommend it as an unfiltered view of Jobs' strategic thinking and decisiveness, including the famous answer on why OpenDoc was killed.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2013–2025K Kostiantyn Kostin · talkCited again and again as Carmack's key public statement on functional programming and purity in game development, plus his remarks on garbage collection.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2011–2024HN points to it constantly in threads on inner monologue, visual versus verbal thinking and communication as the classic, entertaining demonstration that minds work differently.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2022–2026HN commenters recommend it as a mind-expanding talk on rethinking programming, and cite it in threads on propagators, constraints and brittleness.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2017–2024M Method · talkHN recommends it as an enthusiastic, funny talk straight from the creator, and cites it for facts like the name's pronunciation and Airbus support.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2026G gentooman · talkCited constantly in Flatpak, packaging and ABI-compatibility debates as Linus's blunt, insightful take on shipping software for Linux.
- 6 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2022HN points to it whenever Dwarf Fortress comes up, mainly for the alcohol-poisoned cats bug story and a developer's view of the game's depth.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2025P Protectstar Inc. · talkCited as a landmark tech presentation, especially for the audience's astonished reaction to touch scrolling and demo moments like visual voicemail.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2026B Barely Sociable · documentaryHN commenters recommend it as a compelling, if not definitive, argument for Adam Back as Satoshi whenever the identity question comes up.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2012–2025HN commenters point to it as an inspiring talk behind content-addressed designs like IPFS, Urbit and immutable URLs.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2014–2024D DartlangTV · interviewHN points to it as a rare side-by-side of the TypeScript and Dart designers, often to show how the two approaches to improving JavaScript differed.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2011–2022M Mike Cane · talkCommenters link it as a canonical statement of Jobs's product philosophy and as an example of handling an insult calmly and articulately.
- 3 HN recommenders 4 months 2013–2024HN refers to it as the main public description of Google's internal code analysis tooling, and as a precursor of ideas like LSP.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2014–2023D Dan Lewis · talkHN commenters hold it up as one of the most engaging tech talks ever given, both for its identity ideas and its slide technique.
- 6 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2026Commenters recommend it as an entertaining, wide-ranging interview, and cite it for Hotz's views on end-to-end neural-net driving.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2014–2015W Wolfram · demoCommenters point to it as a compact, impressive demo of what the language can do.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2023HN points to it as an accessible long-form introduction to Wolfram's ideas and a window into his passion, though some are critical of his claims.
- 5 HN recommenders 4 months 2021–2023Linked as a source for first-hand JavaScript and Netscape history, with commenters pointing to specific segments like the Java versus JavaScript decision.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2022HN people recommend it as a reading list of historical CS ideas worth knowing, and as a favorite among Armstrong's talks, especially after his death.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2017–2024I iwasjojo · interviewHN reaches for it constantly as evidence of Apple's long-standing privacy stance and as a yardstick for judging Apple, Facebook and others.
- 3 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2023G Guy Steele · talkHN recommends it as an excellent talk on notation problems, useful when reading papers or designing a new metalanguage.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2011–2018P Punkcast · talkHN recommends it as the foundational talk behind FreedomBox and the case against centralized web services.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2010–2024HN returns to it as a legendary moment in tech history and as a precedent for strategic deals between rivals, such as in the Nokia and Microsoft story.
- 3 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2021HN commenters point to it as the author's own short explanation of Xanadu's core ideas, usually in threads on hypertext, linking and decentralizing the web.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2015–2024J Jupiter Broadcasting · interviewHN links it for Cantrill's entertaining epoll versus kqueue rant and his stories, such as bricking a machine with rm -rf.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2026J Jonathan Field · talkQuoted constantly as the canonical statement of product-first thinking over technology-first thinking, and as a model of handling a heckler.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2014–2025HN commenters call it a fantastic introduction to Clojure and the thinking behind its design.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2023K Kasper · lectureIt is the standard reference for why modern compilers and language servers differ from textbook designs, cited in rust-analyzer and parsing threads.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2012–2021S Silicon Valley Historical Association · interviewHN commenters return to it as a motivational reminder to not fear failure and to just ask for what you want.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2021HN recommends it as a fascinating conversation showing how the Ethereum founder thinks.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2023HN recommends it as an accessible way into Wolfram's physics ideas and his personality.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2011–2018Q QuakeCon Official · talkCited as a source for Carmack's views on static analysis, open source and languages, and praised as a captivating, conversational speaker.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2012–2017HN recommends it in startup video lists for its stories and Sacca's candid background.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2022–2023T TechTechPotato · interviewHN recommends it as an interview dense with insight from Keller, worth hearing in full even for non-engineers.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2022HN shares it as an accessible window into Ted Nelson's vision of Xanadu and linking, which commenters say gains meaning with historical context.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2018–2024S Siebel School of Computing and Data Science · lectureCited in many threads about academic incentives, paper counts and why academia struggles to produce working software.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2011–2023HN people point to it as an inspiring, rewatchable speech, especially for anyone worrying about wasted time or direction.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2023–2025K Karol Jałochowski · documentaryIt is one of the few long, candid interviews with the famously reclusive McCarthy, and commenters share it whenever he comes up.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2014–2016C canadarm2 · news clipHN points to it as an entertaining and informative look at the SpaceX versus ULA rivalry.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2025S Steven Brant · talkHN favors it as a compact, quotable management and systems-thinking talk, often cited for doing the right thing versus doing the wrong thing right.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2024C CMU Robotics Institute · interviewHN recommends it for Kay's blunt critique of today's computing and standard CS curricula.
- 5 HN recommenders 3 months 2024–2025HN recommends it as a sobering counterpoint to the Feynman myth for people whose view comes from Surely You're Joking.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2014–2021Recommended to Carmack fans as the keynote with his functional programming adventures and for his fluent, wide-ranging talk.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2025K Kevin Kelly · interviewPeople recommend it as a rare, unpolished look at Gates's mid-90s thinking, including predictions that aged well and badly.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2024Recommended as a firsthand history of how Python became the language of scientific computing and ML.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2021G Gabriel Robins · lectureHN commenters recommend it as an emotionally powerful life-advice talk and revisit it as a reminder of mortality.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2013–2015Recommended to understand what the 37signals founders stand for and DHH's contrarian takes on tech business.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2026B Bo Manton · interviewQuoted whenever HN discusses process-heavy management and companies losing their product focus.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2023U UMKC School of Science and Engineering · talkRecommended whenever latency, buffering or VR comfort comes up, as an accessible account from someone who dealt with it directly.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2012–2023Recommended as a rare, inspiring history of the foundry business and the relationship between Chang and Huang.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2021S Sir James Goldsmith · interviewRecommended as a prescient interview on free trade and its social consequences, worth watching with hindsight.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2023–2026Recommended as a long, excellent first-hand interview with a legendary OS designer, though some note it is light on technical detail.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2023M Meta VR · demoCited for watching Carmack code fluently and for the fast iteration cycle of Racket-based VR scripting.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2023S stri8ted · talkHN recommends it as a classic dev tool pitch with palpable energy, and cites it for why Node was created.
Showing the 100 best-scored of 352. Use search to find the rest.
Questions
What is the most recommended tech pioneers & interviews video on Hacker News?
Jim Simons (full length interview) - Numberphile by Numberphile2: HN recommends it as the best readily available interview with Simons, notable for his emphasis on luck and a humble approach to success.
How is this tech pioneers & interviews list ranked?
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. One viral thread counts less than steady recommendations over years.
Where do the videos come from?
From every Hacker News comment between 2007 and 2026 that linked a YouTube video, labeled by an AI model as a recommendation, a citation, a joke or a criticism. The list is published by HackerTube under ODC-By 1.0; this edition adds indexable pages and the comment context.
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.