The 100 most recommended videos on Hacker News
Out of 6,454 videos that cleared the bar (three people, three months, real commentary), these hundred have the longest and deepest record of recommendations. Most are evergreen; a few are "partly dated" and say so on their page.
- HN's go-to recommendation for learning linear algebra intuition, repeatedly credited with making concepts click and complementing textbooks.
- HN recommends it repeatedly as one of the best and most entertaining programming talks, and as the talk that makes the Y combinator click, even for people who do not use Ruby.
- Andor Gafotas talk recommended in 18 different months by 19 HN users, 2016–2024HN repeatedly calls it the best in-depth introduction to IC manufacturing, a sense-of-awe talk by an independent engineer, while wishing for an updated version.
- HN treats it as the canonical, near-universally recommended lecture on giving talks and presentations.
- HN 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.
- HN repeatedly recommends it as a master class in limited-palette pixel art and palette cycling, from an artist behind Loom and Monkey Island.
- Видео с мероприятий {speach! talk recommended in 16 different months by 15 HN users, 2017–2025It is HN's standard answer to why Python cannot easily get much faster, and is recommended by people who work on JITs and alternative runtimes.
- HN repeatedly calls it the clearest introduction to waves and transmission-line behavior, better than modern explainers.
- HN treats it as the definitive, compassionate documentary on why people fall into conspiracy theories.
- One of the most consistently recommended lecture series on HN, praised as fascinating, funny and eye-opening about human behavior across many scales.
- Principles by Ray Dalio explainer recommended in 17 different months by 18 HN users, 2014–2026HN repeatedly recommends it as the best layperson overview of debt, credit and economic cycles.
- HN treats it as a top-tier programming talk for learning refactoring and for the wrong-abstraction principle, recommended repeatedly over a decade.
- HN's default recommendation for understanding the Fourier transform intuitively; many say it was the explanation that made it click.
- Held up as a marvel of pedagogy and the best explanation of differentials, recommended again and again.
- It is HN's favorite pitch for Elixir and the BEAM, credited with convincing many people to adopt them.
- Jason Salotti lecture recommended in 13 different months by 9 HN users, 2015–2025Repeatedly called the best way to understand ADHD, and recommended to anyone before commenting on it.
- HN treats it as the canonical talk on software complexity, shared constantly and recommended to every programmer regardless of language.
- HN commenters repeatedly recommend it as the talk that finally made quantum mechanics click, especially for programmers.
- HN treats it as the standard short summary of how power and political incentives work, applied to governments, companies and workplaces.
- UChicago Social Sciences lecture recommended in 14 different months by 15 HN users, 2019–2026HN users repeatedly say it changed how they think about writing, calling it a masterclass useful far beyond academia.
- HN commenters repeatedly name it as the best explanation of the JS event loop and the first thing to watch before tackling async code.
- HN treats it as the standard first stop for learning neural networks, praised for making the math intuitive.
- HN's go-to recommendation for colormap and color-perception questions; commenters call it funny, brief, clear and a favorite talk.
- University of California Television (UCTV) lecture recommended in 12 different months by 3 HN users, 2016–2024HN commenters repeatedly say it changed how they hear political speech and recommend it for understanding why opponents are not simply stupid.
- HN's default recommendation for a friendly, thorough introduction to heat pumps and why they are so efficient.
- gimpymoo documentary recommended in 14 different months by 15 HN users, 2015–2026HN recommends it often as an entertaining and authentic dramatization of Sinclair versus Acorn, the story from which ARM grew.
- HN repeatedly calls it one of the best math and graphics explainers on YouTube, praised for bridging game dev and math.
- David Lessig documentary recommended in 13 different months by 13 HN users, 2016–2026HN recommends it often and strongly as an eye-opening account of marketing psychology and the engineering of consumer society.
- The most-recommended balanced take on systemd, from a BSD perspective, handed to anyone caught up in the systemd debate.
- You Gotta Love Frontend talk recommended in 13 different months by 15 HN users, 2019–2026The most recommended introduction to Svelte, credited with sparking its adoption.
- HN repeatedly recommends it as a talk that changed how people model data, with ideas that apply well beyond Elm to any typed language.
- Farm Transparency Project documentary recommended in 12 different months by 10 HN users, 2019–2024HN commenters push it, often forcefully, as the video to watch to see what factory farming really involves, and some say it changed their diet.
- FL Studio explainer recommended in 13 different months by 15 HN users, 2017–2026HN calls it the gold-standard debunking of audiophile myths and the stair-step misconception, and recommends it as a primer on digital audio.
- pannenkoek2012 explainer recommended in 12 different months by 13 HN users, 2016–2024Held up as a legendary deep dive into game internals, explained lucidly and with humor, and a gateway to the channel.
- HN repeatedly recommends the series it launched as the best way to understand how a CPU works, praised for Eater's clear teaching.
- MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center lecture recommended in 13 different months by 16 HN users, 2017–2023Recommended again and again as the best accessible overview of fusion physics, useful for judging fusion announcements and understanding why high-temperature superconducting magnets matter.
- HN returns to it repeatedly as the best single introduction to understanding clinical depression.
- It is the go-to recommendation for anyone who wants to genuinely understand Bezier curves and splines, and commenters repeatedly call it one of the best programming-related educational videos.
- One 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.
- Landon Proctor documentary recommended in 11 different months by 15 HN users, 2011–2026A perennial HN recommendation, brought up whenever sampling, copyright or music history comes up, often described as a must-watch.
- HN repeatedly recommends it as an entertaining, mind-opening talk on allocator design and composable generic programming.
- Numberphile2 interview recommended in 13 different months by 11 HN users, 2015–2024HN recommends it as the best readily available interview with Simons, notable for his emphasis on luck and a humble approach to success.
- Praised as a brilliant, deadpan and inventive hardware hack, and a good starting point for Tom7's videos.
- University of California Television (UCTV) lecture recommended in 12 different months by 13 HN users, 2010–2024The most-linked YouTube video on HN, recommended as an in-depth explanation of fructose metabolism.
- Rob Walling talk recommended in 11 different months by 13 HN users, 2020–2024It is the go-to talk HN commenters recommend to anyone asking about bootstrapping, SaaS pricing, or choosing bootstrapping over VC.
- Frequently recommended in autonomous vehicle and Waymo threads as the main counterargument, a long but worthwhile video essay on how self-driving cars could affect cities.
- TNMoC lecture recommended in 11 different months by 11 HN users, 2021–2026HN calls it mandatory viewing on the AGC, praising the speaker's enthusiasm and the clear account of restartable, robust software design.
- HN returns to it for years as an inspirational talk to send to graduates, founders and anyone at a career crossroads.
- It is HN's most frequently recommended starting point for quantum computing because it avoids pop-science hand-waving and needs only basic linear algebra.
- grapefrukt talk recommended in 12 different months by 12 HN users, 2013–2025The go-to recommendation on game feel and polish, cited by HN as one of the best talks for anyone making interactive things feel good.
- GoogleFOSSSydney talk recommended in 12 different months by 13 HN users, 2012–2025HN returns to it for years as an elegant introduction to writing a lexer that is easy to follow even without a parsing background.
- HN repeatedly recommends it as the best hands-on way to understand how a CPU and a computer work from first principles.
- HN repeatedly recommends it as an amazing talk that derives the essence of Lisp and shows miniKanren-style program synthesis.
- The Artificial Intelligence Channel talk recommended in 11 different months by 12 HN users, 2018–2024HN regularly calls it mind-blowing and recommends it as an introduction to Levin's work on bioelectricity and regeneration.
- It is HN's default recommendation for learning linear algebra, praised for Strang's teaching and for building real understanding useful in machine learning.
- HN repeatedly recommends it as the definitive, mind-changing explanation of dishwasher use, even though it runs over 30 minutes.
- HN treats it as the canonical talk on simulation testing and a mind-blowing example of how far rigorous testing can go.
- HN has recommended it for a decade as the standard explainer on automation and unemployment, though skeptics later cite it as an example of overconfident predictions.
- HN repeatedly recommends it as the deepest public look at how iCloud Keychain and Apple's device and cloud security are designed.
- DevTernity Conference talk recommended in 11 different months by 11 HN users, 2018–2024HN repeatedly calls it the best talk on testing, and many say it changed how they approach tests, mocks and the meaning of a unit.
- Rui Oliveira talk recommended in 11 different months by 12 HN users, 2013–2025It is HN's go-to recommendation for the case that programming environments should give instant feedback, and it appears in nearly every thread on live coding, visual programming or developer tools.
- Commenters repeatedly name it the best explanation of how internet fame, mobs and outrage work, and cite it in threads about harassment and public figures.
- DRS_Education documentary recommended in 11 different months by 12 HN users, 2019–2026Heavily recommended as a masterpiece of popular science and the classic illustration of how fragile interdependent systems are, trotted out in every blackout or supply chain thread.
- HN repeatedly names it the best resource on API design, a staple answer to any 'how do I design an API' question.
- Demoscene High-Quality Videos (Annikras) demo recommended in 10 different months by 7 HN users, 2013–2025Held up as the landmark demoscene production and a counterpoint to software bloat.
- HN commenters send it as a short antidote to cynicism, showing long-term global progress and the shrinking gap between rich and poor countries.
- Excelsior10000 documentary recommended in 12 different months by 13 HN users, 2014–2025HN commenters repeatedly recommend it as a beautiful, approachable explanation of analog mechanical computation, and many have rewatched it.
- It is the go-to funny, accessible explanation of why you should never implement datetime handling yourself, linked in nearly every timezone thread.
- HN commenters cite it as the talk that convinced them of immutability and functional programming.
- The Documentary Network documentary recommended in 12 different months by 13 HN users, 2015–2026HN commenters recommend it as an intimate, embedded look at late-90s web history and the spirit of building something important under pressure.
- Joey Reid talk recommended in 11 different months by 12 HN users, 2017–2026HN treats it as a classic, near-mandatory talk on how programming tools and paradigms stagnated and which older ideas deserve revival.
- Dutch Game Garden talk recommended in 11 different months by 10 HN users, 2014–2025A perennial recommendation for anyone learning game feel and juice, praised for showing concrete steps that turn a bland prototype into a satisfying game.
- Gapminder Foundation lecture recommended in 11 different months by 8 HN users, 2017–2021HN repeatedly recommends it to counter overpopulation alarm with data on falling birth rates.
- HN recommends it as the canonical video on how music theory is really the theory of one Western tradition, with the raga example.
- HN treats it as the go-to layperson-friendly argument against e-voting and links it in nearly every voting-technology thread.
- HN people cite it constantly as the clearest explanation of normalization of deviance and how complex systems drift toward failure.
- Metosin talk recommended in 12 different months by 12 HN users, 2019–2025HN treats it as the standard answer to why FP isn't mainstream and why languages succeed.
- HN treats it as the best real-world AAA example of ECS and game netcode, and cites it constantly in discussions of data-oriented design.
- Google DeepMind documentary recommended in 10 different months by 10 HN users, 2020–2025HN commenters call it a moving, well-made human story about AI and Go that works for non-technical viewers and does not date.
- HN commenters send people to it whenever nulls, Maybe/Option or static typing come up, as a thoughtful dissent from the type-system orthodoxy that changes how some people model data.
- The go-to recommended video for newcomers wanting a clear, visual explanation of how Bitcoin and blockchains work.
- HN commenters repeatedly recommend it in longevity and aging threads as a concise, fun case for fighting aging.
- Regent University School of Law lecture recommended in 12 different months by 13 HN users, 2017–2026HN treats it as the canonical video to link whenever talking to police or interrogations come up.
- Carnegie Mellon University lecture recommended in 12 different months by 12 HN users, 2008–2023Perennially recommended as an inspirational talk for people facing setbacks or choosing a direction, and a source of oft-quoted lines like the brick wall.
- melodysheep documentary recommended in 12 different months by 13 HN users, 2019–2025HN people recommend it as a stunning, mind-bending and existentially humbling view of deep time, and it appears on lists of favorite YouTube videos.
- Living Web Farms talk recommended in 11 different months by 12 HN users, 2019–2025HN commenters call it their favorite introduction to regenerative agriculture, and several say it changed how they garden or farm.
- Clojure/north talk recommended in 11 different months by 10 HN users, 2019–2025HN repeatedly recommends it as a fantastic demonstration of procedural, OOP and FP approaches to the same problem, and of functional core and imperative shell.
- HN commenters frequently recommend it as an eye-opening case against heavy porn use, though it is contested science.
- HN treats it as the go-to visual introduction to transformers, and many say it finally made attention and embeddings click.
- Principles by Ray Dalio explainer recommended in 11 different months by 10 HN users, 2022–2025HN commenters recommend it as a clear framework for placing the current US and world situation within historical debt and empire cycles.
- HN people recommend the SICP lectures as a deeper, livelier route into the book and a formative course even for seasoned programmers.
- The default link in copyright and takedown threads, recommended as an excellent, comprehensive explanation of why automated enforcement and the law work as they do.
- A perennial HN recommendation for outage and postmortem threads, praised as funny, educational and one of the best postmortems anyone has seen.
- Mossie Fly lecture recommended in 11 different months by 11 HN users, 2021–2026HN brings it up in any thread about autopilot, Tesla FSD, self-driving cars and crashes as the classic lecture on automation dependency.
- A perennial HN recommendation whenever lobbying, SOPA, taxes or political corruption come up, with several commenters saying it changed their views.
- HN's go-to short explainer for the City of London versus London, cited in many finance and UK threads.
- DevGAMM talk recommended in 12 different months by 14 HN users, 2020–2025It is the standard link in HN threads about software decay, lost knowledge and fragile technological civilization.
- Recommended whenever APL or array languages come up as the quickest way to see why the paradigm is so striking.
- The Qualcomm Institute talk recommended in 10 different months by 12 HN users, 2010–2024Recommended for years as the best technical introduction to memristors from the person who found the physical device.
- HN commenters recommend it as a pointed critique of philanthropy and win-win thinking, delivered inside Google itself, and cite it across threads on wealth, tax and tech power.
Questions
What is the most recommended YouTube video on Hacker News?
Vectors | Chapter 1, Essence of linear algebra by 3Blue1Brown, recommended in 18 different months by 17 HN users between 2018 and 2026. HN's go-to recommendation for learning linear algebra intuition, repeatedly credited with making concepts click and complementing textbooks.
How is 'best' decided?
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. It rewards videos that people kept recommending for years over one-off spikes.
Why are there no view counts in the ranking?
Because YouTube popularity is exactly what the list is trying to get away from. A video with 40,000 views that twelve different HN users insisted on over eight years ranks above a viral clip linked once.