Asianometry: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "The Extreme Engineering of ASML’s EUV Light Source", commenters repeatedly point to it whenever EUV, ASML or chip manufacturing comes up, as a clear and astonishing explanation of one of the hardest engineering problems in chipmaking.
- explainer recommended in 8 different months by 11 HN users, 2022–2025Commenters repeatedly point to it whenever EUV, ASML or chip manufacturing comes up, as a clear and astonishing explanation of one of the hardest engineering problems in chipmaking.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2023–2026Recommended as a look at how Japan's monopolies were dismantled and how that shaped later industry.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2022–2023HN commenters point to it as a clear explanation of why fabs aren't being built for older process nodes.
- documentary recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2023–2024HN commenters share it in chip fab and industrial espionage threads as a well-researched account of East Germany's failed microelectronics effort.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2022–2024Recommended as a high-level, in-depth take on SMIC's 7nm progress and Asian chip manufacturing.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2021–2025HN uses it as the source on India's early fab attempts, in threads about India's semiconductor ambitions.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2024–2026Recommended as a good explanation of Japanese software industry struggles, though one commenter is unsure of its accuracy.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2022–2023HN points to it as an excellent history of how Japan entered chips, including government-coordinated cooperation like the VLSI project.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2022–2024HN commenters cite it as a concise answer to why Soviet computing failed, including reliance on reverse engineering and bureaucracy.
- documentary cited on HN 4 times, 2026–2026HN cites it as an analogy for loss-leader pricing and market-share wars, for example in AI pricing.
Questions
Which Asianometry video does Hacker News recommend most?
The Extreme Engineering of ASML’s EUV Light Source: recommended in 8 different months by 11 HN users between 2022 and 2025.
Is this every Asianometry 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.