Tom Scott: the videos Hacker News recommends
Not the channel's most viewed videos: the ones HN commenters kept linking with real commentary. The top pick, "Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea", hN treats it as the go-to layperson-friendly argument against e-voting and links it in nearly every voting-technology thread.
- explainer recommended in 11 different months by 11 HN users, 2020–2026HN treats it as the go-to layperson-friendly argument against e-voting and links it in nearly every voting-technology thread.
- explainer recommended in 10 different months by 13 HN users, 2020–2024The default link in copyright and takedown threads, recommended as an excellent, comprehensive explanation of why automated enforcement and the law work as they do.
- commentary recommended in 9 different months by 9 HN users, 2019–2026The standard link when VPN marketing comes up, as a clear debunking of the scare tactics behind VPN ads.
- explainer recommended in 7 different months by 9 HN users, 2021–2026HN recommends it as a well-told chase of a weird fact that lands a rare interview with Lovelock at age 101.
- explainer recommended in 4 different months by 3 HN users, 2019–2025HN treats it as the obligatory video to share whenever plugs and sockets come up, praised for its safety reasoning.
- explainer recommended in 4 different months by 6 HN users, 2021–2024HN cites it as a clear explainer on sponsorship and ad disclosure rules and their inconsistency across media.
- explainer recommended in 4 different months by 5 HN users, 2018–2026HN recommends it as a short, fascinating story of a scale model preventing a terrible engineering decision.
- explainer recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2016–2026Cited whenever backup beepers and noise come up, as a clear explanation of the white-noise alternative.
- explainer recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2018–2024Used as the clearest short demonstration of why noisy, high-motion content is hard for video compression.
- explainer recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2013–2015HN commenters link it as a short, friendly explanation of singular they and grammatical gender in discussions of pronoun usage.
- explainer recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2021–2026HN points to it whenever discussion turns to billionaire wealth or the human difficulty of grasping very large numbers.
- talk recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2016–2019Recommended as an entertaining story of a joke side project growing out of hand, brought up in threads on emoji and side projects.
- explainer recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2020–2025Used as the go-to visual demonstration of A-pillar blind spots and badly designed junctions.
- documentary recommended in 3 different months by 4 HN users, 2022–2026Recommended in address and OCR threads as a look at the last human mail-coding operation.
- explainer recommended in 3 different months by 4 HN users, 2023–2024HN likes the clear animation of how slip rings and piping let a house rotate.
- commentary recommended in 3 different months by 4 HN users, 2023–2025HN cites it for the argument that we cannot tell whether AI is early or late on its sigmoid curve until hindsight.
- talk recommended in 3 different months by 4 HN users, 2018–2024HN links it as a charming defense of bodging and of AutoHotkey, and as the go-to example when custom keyboards or hotkey hacks come up.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 3 HN users, 2021–2023HN uses it as the short, clear explainer when discussions about greetings and small talk come up.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2019–2025HN links it as a popular, accessible introduction to indoor CO2 and its effect on thinking, in air quality threads.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2016–2021HN points to it in discussions of salary transparency as a short, well-sourced overview of how public tax records work in Nordic countries.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2024–2025Recommended as a great example of early VR and pre-computer simulation.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2017–2026The go-to explainer whenever content filters wrongly flag innocent words, well made and short.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2015–2025HN commenters treat it as the standard short answer whenever UK taps come up.
- commentary recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2020–2026Shared in outage and accidental-deletion threads as a relatable, well-told horror story.
- documentary recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2021–2024Recommended in nuclear waste threads as a short, clear look at a real long-term storage solution.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 3 HN users, 2022–2025The go-to short, accessible explainer for mains hum forensics, linked whenever recording authenticity or timestamps come up.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2021–2026Cited in automation and robotics threads as the example of a warehouse built robot-first.
- explainer recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2018–2023HN links it as the standard answer to why phone hold music sounds poor.
- talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2018–2023HN commenters cite it as the canonical thought experiment whenever authentication failures, account compromises or Google outages come up.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2021–2025HN points to it in discussions of AI copyright enforcement and badly specified AI goals, and recommends it alongside his other fiction.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2017–2024The go-to short explanation whenever lava lamps, entropy sources, or Cloudflare randomness come up.
- demo recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2019–2024Mentioned as a delightful stunt whenever emoji input or keyboards come up.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 2 HN users, 2020–2026The go-to citation for why free, open APIs get shut down and for the fate of services like Yahoo Pipes.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2023–2024Linked as a concise, accessible rebuttal whenever linguistic relativity comes up in a thread.
- comedy video recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2013–2026HN cites it as dystopian satire in threads on DRM, digital ownership, mind uploading and AI copyright, often noting it increasingly looks like reality.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2020–2026HN uses it as a short, clear explanation of implied meaning in conversation and the cooperative principle.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2021–2026HN uses it as a well-known example of infrastructure that must run forever to keep an area habitable.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2017–2021HN cites it as the standard case study of how a small unchecked design change causes disaster, and of why engineering process and bureaucracy exist.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2022–2025HN cites it as an intuitive demonstration of the Coriolis effect and the practical problems of spinning habitats.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2021–2026Shared as a short, interesting explainer on very long-lived financial instruments.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2019–2023Cited as a quick, visual explanation of IEX's deliberate latency and of artificial delay as a fairness tool.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2024–2026Linked as the accessible explanation of how moire navigation lights work.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2020–2024HN commenters cite it in discussions of punctuation, tone and emoji in chat as a short intro to how internet writing norms developed.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2021–2026HN links it whenever IDs, base64 or random identifier space come up, as a short and pleasant explainer.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2016–2023HN links it as the original, interesting video behind the 'deadliest river' stories and as an extreme river example.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2018–2023Used to illustrate that the standard targets consistency rather than taste, and to discuss what standardization is for.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2020–2022HN uses it as the go-to example of low-speed vehicle infrastructure in a US suburb, in threads on e-bikes, EVs and autonomous cars.
- explainer recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2022–2023HN cites it as a fascinating explanation of a real Dutch auction, in threads about auctions and ticket sales.
- explainer cited on HN 7 times, 2019–2023HN cites it whenever grid storage or pumped hydro comes up, as an accessible example of storage at scale.
- explainer cited on HN 3 times, 2020–2025Cited as an example of quirks caused by non-geographic maps and design choices in transit systems.
- commentary cited on HN 3 times, 2022–2023HN mentions it as an example of a prominent creator publicly correcting a popular myth, and of the fire brigade myth itself.
- explainer cited on HN 4 times, 2023–2026HN commenters cite it to explain why legal deposit should be complete rather than selective.
- explainer cited on HN 16 times, 2021–2025The standard reference whenever threads discuss electrifying trucking via overhead lines instead of big batteries.
- explainer cited on HN 7 times, 2018–2026Cited as an example of colors too vibrant for monitors and pigments outside the sRGB gamut.
- explainer cited on HN 4 times, 2020–2026Linked as a relevant explainer in threads about Windows quirks and reserved names.
- demo cited on HN 7 times, 2023–2025Go-to reference in EV threads for showing that battery swapping already works in practice.
- explainer cited on HN 7 times, 2017–2021HN links it whenever ThyssenKrupp's Multi or paternoster lifts come up, as the clearest look at the working test tower.
- explainer cited on HN 3 times, 2019–2023Cited to show that helium is not actually running out, and for background on the federal reserve.
- explainer cited on HN 4 times, 2024–2025Cited in subtitle threads for its explanation of why subtitles are condensed and adapted rather than literal.
- comedy video cited on HN 4 times, 2023–2024Linked as an example of the honest, self-aware way Tom Scott treats VPN ads and their legitimate use cases.
Questions
Which Tom Scott video does Hacker News recommend most?
Why Electronic Voting Is Still A Bad Idea: recommended in 11 different months by 11 HN users between 2020 and 2026.
Is this every Tom Scott 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.