Lectures Hacker News recommends
Every lecture in the HackerTube list, best-scored first. The score counts the number of different months in which someone on HN recommended it, so a lecture people kept coming back to for years outranks one viral thread.
- 17 HN recommenders 16 months 2020–2025HN treats it as the canonical, near-universally recommended lecture on giving talks and presentations.
- 17 HN recommenders 16 months 2022–2025HN treats it as the best starting point for really understanding backprop and neural nets, because Karpathy explains the why with intuition and builds everything in code.
- 12 HN recommenders 15 months 2014–2026HN repeatedly calls it the clearest introduction to waves and transmission-line behavior, better than modern explainers.
- 15 HN recommenders 15 months 2012–2026One of the most consistently recommended lecture series on HN, praised as fascinating, funny and eye-opening about human behavior across many scales.
- 9 HN recommenders 13 months 2015–2025J Jason Salotti · lectureRepeatedly called the best way to understand ADHD, and recommended to anyone before commenting on it.
- 15 HN recommenders 14 months 2019–2026U UChicago Social Sciences · lectureHN users repeatedly say it changed how they think about writing, calling it a masterclass useful far beyond academia.
- 3 HN recommenders 12 months 2016–2024HN commenters repeatedly say it changed how they hear political speech and recommend it for understanding why opponents are not simply stupid.
- 16 HN recommenders 13 months 2017–2023M MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center · lectureRecommended again and again as the best accessible overview of fusion physics, useful for judging fusion announcements and understanding why high-temperature superconducting magnets matter.
- 14 HN recommenders 12 months 2009–2026HN returns to it repeatedly as the best single introduction to understanding clinical depression.
- 11 HN recommenders 12 months 2013–2025One of the most frequently recommended online lecture series on HN, praised for giving people vocabulary to examine ethical positions and for Sandel's skilled teaching.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2010–2024The most-linked YouTube video on HN, recommended as an in-depth explanation of fructose metabolism.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2021–2026T TNMoC · lectureHN calls it mandatory viewing on the AGC, praising the speaker's enthusiasm and the clear account of restartable, robust software design.
- 11 HN recommenders 12 months 2011–2020It is HN's default recommendation for learning linear algebra, praised for Strang's teaching and for building real understanding useful in machine learning.
- 8 HN recommenders 11 months 2017–2021G Gapminder Foundation · lectureHN repeatedly recommends it to counter overpopulation alarm with data on falling birth rates.
- 13 HN recommenders 12 months 2017–2026R Regent University School of Law · lectureHN treats it as the canonical video to link whenever talking to police or interrogations come up.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2008–2023C Carnegie Mellon University · lecturePerennially recommended as an inspirational talk for people facing setbacks or choosing a direction, and a source of oft-quoted lines like the brick wall.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2019–2026HN people recommend the SICP lectures as a deeper, livelier route into the book and a formative course even for seasoned programmers.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2021–2026M Mossie Fly · lectureHN brings it up in any thread about autopilot, Tesla FSD, self-driving cars and crashes as the classic lecture on automation dependency.
- 9 HN recommenders 10 months 2021–2025A Altium · lectureHailed as the best video on electrical engineering and an essential, eye-opening watch for anyone designing high-speed boards.
- 11 HN recommenders 9 months 2012–2024Seen as a classic and often the moment programming 'clicks'; commenters praise Abelson's opening that computer science is not about computers.
- 13 HN recommenders 10 months 2010–2025W wonderingmind42 · lectureA perennial HN recommendation for building intuition about exponential growth, cited whenever endless growth, energy or population come up.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2013–2022HN repeatedly recommends the Crockford series as a must-watch history of computing and programming languages, and as a way to learn to think in JavaScript.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2018–2025A ADHDtips · lectureHN readers recommend it as the best primer for understanding ADHD at a neurological level, often suggesting that even the first 10 to 20 minutes are enlightening.
- 9 HN recommenders 10 months 2014–2025C CRI · lectureHN commenters recommend it as a long, evidence-backed theory for what changed in the 1970s and why Congress is broken, even when they are unsure they agree.
- 9 HN recommenders 9 months 2009–2023U UMBCtube · lectureRepeatedly recommended in education threads as the definitive talk on why lectures fail and what works better.
- 11 HN recommenders 10 months 2012–2023HN recommends it as career and research advice on choosing important problems and doing first-class work.
- 10 HN recommenders 8 months 2025–2026HN's most frequent recommendation for a clear, approachable foundation in how LLMs work without heavy math.
- 9 HN recommenders 10 months 2012–2024HN repeatedly recommends it as the clearest and most correct beginner explanation of monads, with several commenters saying it finally made them click.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2008–2022HN cites it often in debates on inequality, cost disease and stagnant middle-class income, praising its data-driven approach.
- 12 HN recommenders 9 months 2022–2026HN treats it as the definitive explanation of Conway's Law and links it in almost any thread about org structure shaping software.
- 6 HN recommenders 10 months 2015–2024P Pierce College District WA · lectureHN recommends it for productivity, focus and working-from-home threads, since its advice on breaks and mental modes applies beyond studying.
- 10 HN recommenders 10 months 2021–2026HN returns to it constantly in software performance debates as the primer on non-pessimization and why modern software is slow.
- 8 HN recommenders 10 months 2020–2022B Bivector · lectureHN commenters repeatedly point people to it as the most accessible, developer-friendly introduction to geometric algebra and its use in graphics and physics.
- 10 HN recommenders 9 months 2011–2026HN recommends it as an accessible, widely shared critique of schooling, and cites it in threads on ADHD, creativity and education reform.
- 9 HN recommenders 8 months 2020–2023M Missing Semester · lectureHN frequently calls it the best single video on git because it teaches the underlying data structures.
- 9 HN recommenders 8 months 2017–2024HN commenters repeatedly recommend Barkley's lectures as the best introduction to understanding ADHD.
- 11 HN recommenders 9 months 2016–2026B Bartosz Milewski · lectureHN commenters repeatedly name it as the friendliest entry point to category theory for working programmers.
- 10 HN recommenders 9 months 2015–2025HN people with ADHD or ADHD-affected relatives share it as an authoritative, practical talk that helped some seek diagnosis.
- 14 HN recommenders 8 months 2022–2024F fin_topsu · lectureAfter the 2022 invasion, commenters spread it widely as an eye-opening explanation of Russian mindset, corruption and propaganda, though a few doubt the presenter's rigor.
- 7 HN recommenders 8 months 2012–2025HN regulars treat it as an essential, fun Hofstadter talk for any discussion of concepts, analogy and metaphor.
- 6 HN recommenders 8 months 2022–2024HN cites it as an accessible physician-led review supporting claims about infrared light, mitochondria and morning sun.
- 8 HN recommenders 8 months 2018–2023H HBS Digital Initiative · lectureA staple HN recommendation in crypto and Web3 threads as an entertaining, compelling case against blockchain.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2012–2024S seabala · lectureWidely recommended as one of the clearest, funniest short explanations of what makes something science.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2017–2022Several HN commenters credit the lecture series with helping them through depression or personal collapse and recommend it as long-form learning.
- 6 HN recommenders 7 months 2020–2026U UnityCoin · lectureHN commenters call it better than the Clean Code book, a must-watch for engineers that changes how they read and write code.
- 7 HN recommenders 7 months 2009–2024R Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science · lectureHN regards it as a famous, mesmerizing talk, especially for the point that distant galaxies will become unobservable.
- 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 6 months 2013–2022HN people recommend it as a masterclass in explaining physics clearly without condescension, accessible without formal training.
- 6 HN recommenders 7 months 2019–2026C Centrum Nadania · lectureHN commenters send people to it as the primary source for NVC, recommended for relationships, compassion and difficult conversations.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2020–2023C CMU Database Group · lectureFrequently recommended as the best free university course on database internals, praised for depth and Pavlo's presentation.
- 6 HN recommenders 7 months 2019–2022J John Vervaeke’s Lectern · lectureHN recommends the series as a thorough, non-dogmatic look at meaning, spirituality and escaping nihilism.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2021–2025HN people recommend it to anyone wanting a practical sense of what CPUs can really do and why abstraction layers cost so much performance.
- 4 HN recommenders 7 months 2018–2023T The University of British Columbia · lectureHN recommends it as a sobering, still-relevant look at the geopolitical consequences of warming, including why official reports lag the data.
- 4 HN recommenders 6 months 2020–2025U UChicago Social Sciences · lectureHN treats it as the definitive writing lecture and recommends it repeatedly, with several commenters saying it changed how they write.
- 5 HN recommenders 6 months 2019–2025Called a favorite and a masterpiece by commenters as the clearest accessible explanation that there are only waves in fields, and what physics still doesn't know.
- 5 HN recommenders 6 months 2018–2022HN commenters point to it as a lucid, general-audience lecture that shows how wrong common conceptions of time are, often in threads on entropy and the arrow of time.
- 10 HN recommenders 6 months 2020–2023Y Yale University · lectureDuring the 2022 Ukraine war threads, HN commenters recommended it as a non-Western perspective on Russia-West relations and Putin's motives.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2019–2024E Eva CollinsAlonso · lectureFrequently recommended as a delightful, influential way to think about story structure.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2025S Sean Carroll · lectureHN commenters recommend the series as engaging, substantial physics with just enough math for non-specialists.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2013–2024D Diego Ongaro · lectureRecommended as a clear, lucid way to learn Paxos and Multi-Paxos, ideally alongside the companion Raft video.
- 3 HN recommenders 5 months 2016–2024HN repeatedly recommends it as an approachable, math-light route to understanding mass and the Higgs field.
- 6 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2025T The Galen Foundation · lectureSeveral HN commenters call it one of the best explanations of fasting and insulin and recommend it in diet and weight loss threads.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2010–2026HN commenters call it a favorite introduction to Valley history and cite it whenever government and military funding of tech comes up.
- 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 2017–2026HN commenters share it as an accessible case for worker cooperatives and workplace democracy as a model for a modern left.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2025HN recommends it as a serious, influential talk on market size and monopoly, though some commenters criticize its philosophy as endorsing anti-competitive goals.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2019–2024F Fullstack Academy · lectureRepeatedly recommended as one of the most approachable introductions to lambda calculus and combinators.
- 5 HN recommenders 6 months 2019–2025B Beckman Institute at Illinois · lectureHN commenters recommend it as an entertaining and informative explanation of how stress affects health.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2016–2021S Science Communication Lab · lectureRecommended as a clear, authoritative lecture series on plausible origin-of-life theories.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2025C Central Washington University · lectureHN commenters offer it as a dry but fascinating, hype-free introduction to Cascadia earthquake risk and the evidence for past events.
- 9 HN recommenders 6 months 2015–2018B Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS) · lectureHN keeps pointing to it as a thoughtful vision of programming for non-programmers and as background on Eve's motivations.
- Timothy Snyder: The Making of Modern Ukraine. Class 1: Ukrainian Questions Posed by Russian Invasion6 HN recommenders 5 months 2022–2025Y YaleCourses · lectureStrongly recommended as an accessible, well-taught history of Ukraine and a counter to propaganda narratives.
- 4 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2025T The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures · lectureHN recommends it as a funny, fascinating talk on cuneiform tablets and the ancient world by an engaging curator.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2019–2023Recommended as a sober, physics-based account of how energy underlies the economy.
- 4 HN recommenders 6 months 2019–2026C CIRMMT · lectureHN recommends it as a crash course on audio reproduction science, especially the finding that listeners reliably prefer more accurate speakers in blind tests.
- 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.
- 1 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2023HN fans love it for Knuth's humor and for how he makes open math problems feel approachable, and it is often cited for details like dancing links and counting rectangle subdivisions.
- 6 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2026D Duke University Department of Political Science · lectureHN cites it heavily in diversity and academia debates as an intellectual analysis of the truth versus social justice conflict.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2015–2024M Michigan Engineering · lectureHN points to it as a thoughtful, first-principles take from a Turing award winner that cuts through NoSQL and big data hype.
- 6 HN recommenders 5 months 2016–2023L lXlSalemlXl · lectureHN commenters cite it as a mind-changing introduction to exponential growth, though some note his peak oil predictions did not pan out.
- 3 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2024HN users recommend it as a delightful, well-told account of how cuneiform developed and was decoded.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2025M Martin Kleppmann · lectureHN regularly recommends the series as a free, accessible, theory-oriented course on distributed computing that complements his book Designing Data-Intensive Applications.
- 5 HN recommenders 6 months 2020–2025M MIT 6.824: Distributed Systems · lectureRecommended as the standard free course for learning distributed systems from real papers.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2016–2024T The Riverbends Channel · lectureRecommended for Baldwin's riveting delivery and as an example of serious debate between opposing worldviews.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2012–2022D David Comberg · lectureHN cites it as a charming, funny way to see story structure and a source for the idea that plots have shapes.
- 4 HN recommenders 5 months 2009–2021C Carnegie Mellon University · lectureHN commenters recommend it as a practical, memorable guide to prioritization, and some rewatch it every year.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2025F funbury · lectureHN uses it to illustrate physical latency limits and why performance and distance matter in computing.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2015–2023V vlada888 · lectureRecommended as the best exposition of Tainter's theory, and used to explain slowing innovation, centralization and collapse risk.
- 4 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2025U Utah State University Extension · lectureHN uses it as the go-to rebuttal to vertical farming hype, since it gives hard numbers from a leading controlled-environment authority.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2023S Steve Brunton · lectureHN recommends the series as an approachable but rigorous way to learn control theory, with good production quality.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2014–2024Recommended as a follow-up to Lustig's original sugar talk for the metabolic details of fructose.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2016–2022F Fermilab · lectureHN recommends it as the clearest long-form explanation of the everything-is-fields view for non-physicists.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2014–2025C College of DuPage · lectureHN recommends it to engineers as a skeptical counterweight to technology boosterism, especially for those building AI and consumer tech features.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2019–2021H Hiroob · lectureTreated as the classic lecture on why people misjudge exponential growth, and pulled out in threads on compound growth, epidemics, crypto and resource limits.
- 7 HN recommenders 4 months 2023–2026S Sebastien Bubeck · lectureHN recommends it as a thought-provoking talk from a researcher with early GPT-4 access, especially for the unicorn degrading under safety tuning.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2024C Churchill College, University of Cambridge · lectureRecommended as a funny, accessible history of Haskell that is valuable even for people interested in language design in general.
- 4 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2018HN commenters recommend it as a clear, in-depth lecture on consciousness as a process of prediction.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2024–2025Recommended as the best deep dive on tokenizers, worth the two hours for anyone working with LLMs.
- 7 HN recommenders 5 months 2013–2021T TVO Docs · lectureHN commenters recommend it as an accessible yet substantive introduction to the holographic principle and black hole information, often when related physics news comes up.
- 3 HN recommenders 4 months 2014–20262 21 Studios · lectureHN recommends it as the theory behind Body by Science, explaining metabolism and why brief intense training works.
Showing the 100 best-scored of 316. Use search to find the rest.
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.