SmarterEveryDay: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA... (But I said it anyway) - Smarter Every Day 293", commenters point to it whenever Artemis, SLS or Starship refueling comes up, as a candid and critical engineering assessment delivered directly to NASA.
- 9 HN recommenders 7 months 2023–2025talkCommenters point to it whenever Artemis, SLS or Starship refueling comes up, as a candid and critical engineering assessment delivered directly to NASA.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2025–2026documentaryHN cites it constantly in US manufacturing debates as a vivid demonstration of how much domestic industrial capability has been lost.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2016–2025demoIt is the go-to demonstration of how hypoxia silently disables decision making, cited in threads on altitude, flying, diving, CO2 and breathwork.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2025documentaryHN recommends it as a rare look inside a rocket factory and cites it for manufacturing details like welding methods.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2026explainerGo-to link when oxygen candles, CO2 capture or submarine air quality come up.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2013–2024demoRecommended across Prince Rupert's drop and glass threads for its striking high-speed footage.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2015–2025demoHN cites it widely in discussions of tacit knowledge, habit, unlearning and adult versus child learning.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2019–2022interviewHN cites it for an insider's look at defense work and at how the military thinks about information operations and cyberspace.
- 5 HN recommenders 3 months 2018–2022explainerRecommended in launch threads as an immersive way to hear what a Falcon Heavy launch actually sounds like.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2023explainerRecommended as the clearest footage of a whip tip going supersonic, and cited in shockwave discussions.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2022documentaryHN viewers find the film manufacturing process and the engineering behind it fascinating, especially the continuous roll changes.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2012–2023explainerHN recommends it as a good visual explanation of how cats land on their feet.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2021explainerReferenced in threads on social media manipulation and junk content as an interesting miniseries, though one commenter criticized its ExpressVPN ad read.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2022documentaryRecommended in submarine threads as the start of an access-rich series on life aboard a US fast attack sub.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2023explainerCommenters recommend it for the striking glass-shattering visuals and the artist's attitude of treating failure as a space for discovery.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2023–2025documentaryRecommended for factory-process fans and as part of a series on how US manufacturing is losing tooling capability.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2017–2021demoHN uses it as a vivid example of tacit knowledge and skill acquisition, where the brain eventually abstracts away the complexity.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2017–2023demoCited in Prince Rupert's drop threads as the best high-speed footage of a bullet hitting one.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2020explainerHN commenters cite it for numbers on Facebook's moderation scale and for Destin's ability to get platforms to speak openly about manipulation.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2015–2019commentaryHN cites it as the first-hand account of video piracy on Facebook whenever the platform's treatment of creators comes up.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2018–2019explainerPointed to as an interesting look inside how consumer DNA testing companies process samples.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020explainerCited in discussions of platform manipulation and eroding institutional trust, though mentions are mostly passing references.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2023explainerHN points to it as the best accessible explanation of submarine ice breaking and sub controls.
- cited 3× 0 months 2017–2025demoHN cites it as the go-to high-speed footage whenever Prince Rupert's drops come up.
- cited 4× 0 months 2019–2023explainerUsed as supporting evidence in threads on farming that farmers are smart, skilled and quantitative.
Questions
Which SmarterEveryDay video does Hacker News recommend most?
I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA... (But I said it anyway) - Smarter Every Day 293: recommended in 7 different months by 9 HN users between 2023 and 2025.
Is this every SmarterEveryDay 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.