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a better way to count

3 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
3 HN users recommended this explainer4 months2018–2025 score 5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN points to it as a funny, convincing take on number bases whenever dozenal or base 6 comes up.

jan Misali presents an humorous but earnest case for counting in base 6 (seximal) instead of base 10 or 12, comparing the arithmetic advantages of each.

“This video convinced me that base 6 would be even better for simple pen-and-paper math” (HN, 2020)

2 strong recommendations · 2 recommendations · 1 citations · Explainers

5 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@ar-nelson May 2020 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Roman Finger Counting
This video convinced me that base 6 would be even better for simple pen-and-paper math, as well as just about everything else: [this video]
Convincing case for base 6 arithmetic
@jodrellblank Sep 2020 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Show HN: Base32H, a human-friendly duotrigesimal number system
Time to link the ConLang Critic's video "A better way to count" where he compares decimal and dozenal (base12) with seximal (base6) and base 6 wins. [this video] One of the best videos of number-base related comedy.
Funny comparison of decimal, dozenal and seximal
@jodrellblank Nov 2018 Recommends
on HN thread International System of Units overhauled in historic vote
Why are you so obsessed with thirds? If you care about short, clean fractions on a human scale, base 6 is overall better, see this table: [this video] Plus you get all the convenience of having five digits on a hand and 5 as the highest counting digit, so you can count to 55 on two hands, and all the rest of the benefits in that (totally serious) video.
Argues base 6 beats other bases

Citations, criticism and jokes

@jodrellblank Aug 2025 Cites it
on HN thread We'd be better off with 9-bit bytes
Read more
> " (like you just need to remember 2 more digits) " "The standard among mathematicians for writing larger bases is to extend the Arabic numerals using the Latin alphabet, so ten is written with the letter A and eleven is written with the letter B. But actually doing it that way makes ten and eleven look like they're too separate from the rest of the digits so you can use an inverted two for ten and an inverted three for eleven. But those don't display in most fonts so you can approximate them with the letters T and E which also happen to be the first letters of the English words ten and eleven. But actually as long as we're okay for using the Latin alphabet characters for these digits then we might as well use X for ten like in Roman numerals. But actually now we're back to having them look too different from the other ten digits so how about instead we use the Greek letters Chi and Epsilon but actually if we're using Greek letters then there's no association between the X looking letter and the number ten, so maybe you can write ten with the Greek letter delta instead. And all you really need to learn is those 'two new digits' and you're ready to use dozenal." - Jan Misali in his comedy video on why base 6 is a better way to count than base 12 or base 10 [this video] (which is a pisstake and ends up making the point that Base 10 isn't so bad). ("in dozenal, a seventh is written as 0.186X35 recurring because it's equal to one gross eight dozen ten great gross ten gross three doze
Satirical bit about dozenal digit symbols

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.

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