Categories
Best Tech Talks on YouTube, Ranked by Hacker News
Conference talks and university lectures on software, systems, AI, hardware and computing that Hacker News keeps recommending — ranked not by view count, but by how many separate months HN commenters kept vouching for them.
Type
TalkLectureDocumentaryExplainerDemoTutorialInterviewCommentaryComedyMusicPodcastsNews & reportingCoursesFeatures
Evergreen only
16 mo on HNThe spelled-out intro to neural networks and backpropagation: building micrograd
Andrej Karpathy
17 HN recommender · 2022–2025
15 mo on HNAT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition)
AT&T Tech Channel
12 HN recommender · 2014–2026
11 mo on HNLight Years Ahead | The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer
TNMoC
11 HN recommender · 2021–2026
12 mo on HNLec 1 | MIT 18.06 Linear Algebra, Spring 2005
MIT OpenCourseWare
11 HN recommender · 2011–2020
11 mo on HNDON'T PANIC — Hans Rosling showing the facts about population
Gapminder Foundation
8 HN recommender · 2017–2021
10 mo on HNLecture 1A: Overview and Introduction to Lisp
MIT OpenCourseWare
10 HN recommender · 2019–2026
10 mo on HN[LIVE] How to Achieve Proper Grounding - Rick Hartley - Expert Live Training (US)
Altium
9 HN recommender · 2021–2025
9 mo on HNLecture 1A | MIT 6.001 Structure and Interpretation, 1986
MIT OpenCourseWare
11 HN recommender · 2012–2024
10 mo on HNThe Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8)
wonderingmind42
13 HN recommender · 2010–2025
10 mo on HNCrockford on JavaScript - Volume 1: The Early Years
YUI Library
10 HN recommender · 2013–2022
10 mo on HNHamming, "You and Your Research" (June 6, 1995)
securitylectures
11 HN recommender · 2012–2023
8 mo on HNDeep Dive into LLMs like ChatGPT
Andrej Karpathy
10 HN recommender · 2025–2026
10 mo on HNBrian Beckman: Don't fear the Monad
jasonofthel33t
9 HN recommender · 2012–2024
9 mo on HNThe Only Unbreakable Law
Molly Rocket
12 HN recommender · 2022–2026
10 mo on HNRefterm Lecture Part 1 - Philosophies of Optimization
Molly Rocket
10 HN recommender · 2021–2026
10 mo on HNSiggraph2019 Geometric Algebra
Bivector
8 HN recommender · 2020–2022
8 mo on HNLecture 6: Version Control (git) (2020)
Missing Semester
9 HN recommender · 2020–2023
9 mo on HNCategory Theory 1.1: Motivation and Philosophy
Bartosz Milewski
11 HN recommender · 2016–2026
8 mo on HNBlockchains Are a Bad Idea (James Mickens)
HBS Digital Initiative
8 HN recommender · 2018–2023
7 mo on HNClean Code - Uncle Bob / Lesson 1
UnityCoin
6 HN recommender · 2020–2026
7 mo on HNRichard Feynman Computer Science Lecture - Hardware, Software and Heuristics
Muon Ray
8 HN recommender · 2013–2026
6 mo on HN01 - Course Introduction & Relational Model (CMU Databases Systems / Fall 2019)
CMU Database Group
6 HN recommender · 2020–2023
6 mo on HNSimple Code, High Performance
Molly Rocket
6 HN recommender · 2021–2025
6 mo on HNPaxos lecture (Raft user study)
Diego Ongaro
6 HN recommender · 2013–2024
6 mo on HNSecret History of Silicon Valley
Computer History Museum
6 HN recommender · 2010–2026
7 mo on HNHow to Invent the Future I - Stanford CS183F: Startup School
Stanford Online
3 HN recommender · 2018–2024
5 mo on HNLambda Calculus - Fundamentals of Lambda Calculus & Functional Programming in JavaScript
Fullstack Academy
5 HN recommender · 2019–2024
6 mo on HNIn Search of Tomorrow
Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS)
9 HN recommender · 2015–2018
6 mo on HNFloyd Toole - Sound reproduction – art and science/opinions and facts
CIRMMT
4 HN recommender · 2019–2026
6 mo on HNHow to Invent the Future II - Stanford CS183F: Startup School
Stanford Online
3 HN recommender · 2017–2024
5 mo on HNStanford Lecture: Don Knuth—"A Conjecture That Had To Be True" (2017)
Stanford Online
1 HN recommend · 2017–2023
5 mo on HNMichael Stonebraker | Big Data is (at least) Four Different Problems
Michigan Engineering
5 HN recommender · 2015–2024
5 mo on HNArithmetic, Population and Energy - a talk by Al Bartlett
lXlSalemlXl
6 HN recommender · 2016–2023
5 mo on HNDistributed Systems 1.1: Introduction
Martin Kleppmann
5 HN recommender · 2021–2025
6 mo on HNLecture 1: Introduction
MIT 6.824: Distributed Systems
5 HN recommender · 2020–2025
5 mo on HNAdmiral Grace Hopper Explains the Nanosecond
funbury
5 HN recommender · 2020–2025