5 ms·

Ask HN: Who are your favorite tech youtubers

33 points by mr_o47 2y ago

Would love to hear since we all love to watch youtube when it comes to learning new stuff

b20000 2y ago
The Tech Lead
082349872349872 2y ago
If you like tech, and like learning, I would suggest investing time with more information-dense media than video.
- mraza007 2y ago
  What do you mean information dense media. Like blogs
  - 082349872349872 2y ago
    books: stuff that's been around longer than 5 years papers: 5-2 years slides: 2 years-cutting edge a few blogs are about as good as slides (basically when they're serving the same purpose: technical communication with peers) YMMV, but I aim for things that people spent a long time thinking about to prepare, in order that I may learn from them in a much shorter time: Good books probably take 4-12 months (wall clock) to prepare, but I can digest them in days to weeks. (theoretical CS and maths take longer to digest; I'm guessing they're proportionally more difficult to write. a physics anecdote: Halliday and Resnick reportedly took 5 years to prepare their 1st edition.) I'm not sure I've run into anyone who's consistently written more than 6 good papers a year, so call them 1-2 months to prepare; digestible in 1-2 days. Slides or the better blogs may take days to prepare, yet are digestible in fractions of an hour.
reportgunner 2y ago
None, I feel like all of them are experts in marketing, not experts in tech. Louis Rossmann is alright though I like him even though I don't watch him anymore.
llmblockchain 2y ago
None. Youtubers tend to fall into a few buckets. 1. Watch me build Minecraft in five minutes (all game devlogs, etc). 2. Watch me read an article and talk about it for 30 minutes (t3.gg, primeagen, etc). 3. Watch me build my dream game, part three (last uploaded three years ago). 4. Watch my shorts with fast jump cuts, large text and no substance.
- geoah 2y ago
  Have to agree with this. YouTube is ok for entertainment but haven't found anything actually educational coming from tech content creators, on either YouTube or Twitch.
- guilherme-puida 2y ago
  Off the top of my head, Andreas Kling and Casey Muratori don't fall into any of those buckets. There are probably more examples as well.
  - llmblockchain 2y ago
    Yes, you'll always have some that don't fit the mold. Off the top of my head: bisqwit pwnfunction cherno However, it's like picking through a dung pile looking for the needle, or something like that. You're better off reading some books, the news, experimenting on your own, etc.
- rchaud 2y ago
  You left out one of the biggest categories: "tech reviews" that are basically 30-minute infomercials in 4K.
tiew9Vii 2y ago
I discovered “Developer Voices” recently https://youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices https://youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices. It’s more a podcast style channel, with a different guest on each episode with experience in a different area of tech/computer science they discuss. No memes, no clickbait, no how to be a tech lead just mixed varied interesting computer science content/topics. Agree with the other posters though, generally tech channels are junk full of charlatans.
incomingpain 2y ago
Network Chuck Jeff Geerling Ippsec Linus Tech Tips Louis Rossman kinda. 3d printing nerd cnc kitchen makers muse zack freedman tech ingredients marques brownlee adam savage tested There's probably a bunch more, but honestly kind of watching more gun related stuff lately. Garand thumb, kentucky ballistics, etc.
al_borland 2y ago
Dave's Garage is pretty interesting. He worked at Microsoft and wrote things like the Task Manager and Zip folders. He tells old stories and gives the inside scoop on how some of those things came to be.
- pcdoodle 2y ago
  I second this: Dave Plumber / Dave's Garage, love his content.
SilverCode 2y ago
Nir Lichtman - Sub 10 min videos on mostly C and Assembly programming Low Level Learning - Sub 10 min videos with a leaning towards the security aspect of code Ben Eater - Making a computer from scratch Fireship - 100 seconds of X to help me keep up with whatever tech stack my colleagues are proposing this week IppSec - Security and Hacking Jacob Sorber - Various programming topics, mostly around C javidx9 - Game programming topics, most writing old-school game engines Low Byte Productions - Long form videos (1+ hours) on low level topics Nathan Baggs - Hacks old games to get them working again The Coding Train - Various fun programming topics mostly around visualization and graphics, done in the format of a kids program TJ DeVries - Teaches you how to exit vim, and other vim stuff typecraft - Neovim and tmux tutorials, plugins, configurations etc
impish9208 2y ago
I hate the new trend where they make ridiculous faces on the thumbnails. I know they’re doing it because it must be increasing engagement, but it’s so annoying.
- noman-land 2y ago
  This has been a trend for like 10 years already. Yes, it annoys me too but they apparently have the numbers to prove it gets more engagement, which is even more annoying.
- pcdoodle 2y ago
  I wonder if it's more engagement due to impressions or people actually click on dumb looking faces more often.
- sphars 2y ago
  If you're able to install extensions, this one[0] removes the clickbaity thumbnails and titles using crowdsourced data. It's from the same developer of SponsorBlock [0]: https://dearrow.ajay.app/ https://dearrow.ajay.app/
- rchaud 2y ago
  New trend? This is YT's original sin: allowing uploaders to use any image as a thumbnail, instead of picking a frame from the video.
  - pimlottc 2y ago
    Custom thumbnails weren't a feature on YouTube until maybe 2010 or so. Before that, they had to be a frame from the video, and originally you couldn't even choose which frame. So I wouldn't exactly call it an "original sin".
- Havoc 2y ago
  It’s less a trend and more that yt rewards it. Not sure if that is actively rewarded by algo or just organic but I recall when it started some YouTubers being reluctant but did it anyway because it worked. Think some even semi A B tested it
slowfox 2y ago
Outstanding, not only because they are great teachers but, above all, because I percieve them as incredibly likeable personalities: 1. Kevin Powell (Kevin Powell) - CSS 2. Daniel Schiffmann (The Coding Train) - Creative Coding
okdood64 2y ago
Asianometry for the background and history of industry; with a particular focus on semiconductors.
RedlineTriad 2y ago
Some of my favorites are: Acerola, GPU and shader programming: https://www.youtube.com/@Acerola_t https://www.youtube.com/@Acerola_t Sebastian Lague, various mostly visual algorithms for games: https://www.youtube.com/@SebastianLague https://www.youtube.com/@SebastianLague Freya Holmér, beautiful game dev related math: https://www.youtube.com/@acegikmo https://www.youtube.com/@acegikmo pannenkoek2012, how Mario 64 limitations create the most interesting bugs: https://www.youtube.com/@pannenkoek2012 https://www.youtube.com/@pannenkoek2012 Jon Gjengset, some of the most in-depth rust content: https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo AngeTheGreat, physics engine game dev including sound simulation: https://www.youtube.com/@AngeTheGreat https://www.youtube.com/@AngeTheGreat fasterthanlime, diverse, mostly rust content: https://www.youtube.com/@fasterthanlime https://www.youtube.com/@fasterthanlime Bisqwit, retro programming: https://www.youtube.com/@Bisqwit https://www.youtube.com/@Bisqwit CodeParade, higher dimensional and fractal game dev: https://www.youtube.com/@CodeParade https://www.youtube.com/@CodeParade suckerpinch, code that should not be though of, let alone executed: https://www.youtube.com/@tom7 https://www.youtube.com/@tom7 SimonDev, game dev, performance focused, video quality varies: https://www.youtube.com/@simondev758 https://www.youtube.com/@simondev758 And many mentioned by SilverCode
- nickradford 2y ago
  Acerola and Sebastian Lague are two of my favorites too, good taste!
glouwbug 2y ago
Bisqwit
ezekg 2y ago
One of my favorites is Optimum: https://www.youtube.com/@optimumtech https://www.youtube.com/@optimumtech. Lots of gnarly PC builds. I cloned his negative pressure Ghost S1 SFFPC build (but with a deshrouded Sapphire RX 5700 XT+ and Ryzen 3700x) and I absolutely love it.
jpsouth 2y ago
John Hammond - Cyber security/ethical hacking. He explains what he's doing well enough for even someone like me, with very little cybersec knowledge, to follow along and understand. Someone else also commented Nathan Baggs, also a great explainer of what he's doing (and he hacks some fantastic old school games too).
tanseydavid 2y ago
Youtube channel "bigclivedotcom" does teardowns of consumer electronic crap from AliBaba, Amazon etc. with a soothing British accent and wit.
iamflimflam1 2y ago
Me! I actually quite enjoy watching my own videos (some of them anyway…) https://www.youtube.com/atomic14 https://www.youtube.com/atomic14
gnatman 2y ago
@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER - experiments with circuit bending, synths, and other instruments https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw
1ilit 2y ago
have to add tsoding to the already mentioned channels
ohthatsnotright 2y ago
Quite a few of mine are already mentioned but if you're into retro-computers or restoration, I find Usagi Electric to be an incredible wealth of knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric Also enjoy https://www.youtube.com/@Computerphile https://www.youtube.com/@Computerphile for more in depth videos
RockRobotRock 2y ago
Cathode Ray Dude
Tomte 2y ago
Technology Connections
ruslan 2y ago
I vote for Ben Eater and for a number of others 8-bit guys.
mindwork 2y ago
Recently discovered ThePrimeagen videos on youtube https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen From my existing subscriptions: - Just Another CTO https://www.youtube.com/@justanothercto https://www.youtube.com/@justanothercto - Techno Tim https://www.youtube.com/@TechnoTim https://www.youtube.com/@TechnoTim - Wolfgang's Channel https://www.youtube.com/@WolfgangsChannel https://www.youtube.com/@WolfgangsChannel - TechWorld with Nana https://www.youtube.com/@TechWorldwithNana https://www.youtube.com/@TechWorldwithNana
- Havoc 2y ago
  Also craft computing - similar to techno Tim
wifijammer 2y ago
More on the entertainment side than educational (but if you understand engineering/coding you would highly appreciate the work that goes into some of these videos) https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelreeves https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelreeves https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober https://youtube.com/c/theHacksmith https://youtube.com/c/theHacksmith
leke 2y ago
ThePrimeTime is an entertaining and interesting coder.
AstmmetryAware 2y ago
Mental Outlaw for sure.
tmtvl 2y ago
Casey Muratori and Will Byrd, though I'm not that big on tech youtubers. Strange Loop was also pretty great and I can't believe I have to say 'was' there, but so it goes.
reportgunner 2y ago
I gotta mention styropyro[0] even though he doesn't deal with computers at all - his channel is all about crazy overpowered lasers and sometimes some crazy chemistry. [0] https://www.youtube.com/@styropyro https://www.youtube.com/@styropyro

33 points by mr_o47 2y ago

Would love to hear since we all love to watch youtube when it comes to learning new stuff

b20000 2y ago

The Tech Lead

082349872349872 2y ago

If you like tech, and like learning, I would suggest investing time with more information-dense media than video.

mraza007 2y ago
What do you mean information dense media. Like blogs
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  books: stuff that's been around longer than 5 years papers: 5-2 years slides: 2 years-cutting edge a few blogs are about as good as slides (basically when they're serving the same purpose: technical communication with peers) YMMV, but I aim for things that people spent a long time thinking about to prepare, in order that I may learn from them in a much shorter time: Good books probably take 4-12 months (wall clock) to prepare, but I can digest them in days to weeks. (theoretical CS and maths take longer to digest; I'm guessing they're proportionally more difficult to write. a physics anecdote: Halliday and Resnick reportedly took 5 years to prepare their 1st edition.) I'm not sure I've run into anyone who's consistently written more than 6 good papers a year, so call them 1-2 months to prepare; digestible in 1-2 days. Slides or the better blogs may take days to prepare, yet are digestible in fractions of an hour.

reportgunner 2y ago

None, I feel like all of them are experts in marketing, not experts in tech. Louis Rossmann is alright though I like him even though I don't watch him anymore.

llmblockchain 2y ago

None. Youtubers tend to fall into a few buckets. 1. Watch me build Minecraft in five minutes (all game devlogs, etc). 2. Watch me read an article and talk about it for 30 minutes (t3.gg, primeagen, etc). 3. Watch me build my dream game, part three (last uploaded three years ago). 4. Watch my shorts with fast jump cuts, large text and no substance.

geoah 2y ago
Have to agree with this. YouTube is ok for entertainment but haven't found anything actually educational coming from tech content creators, on either YouTube or Twitch.
guilherme-puida 2y ago
Off the top of my head, Andreas Kling and Casey Muratori don't fall into any of those buckets. There are probably more examples as well.
- llmblockchain 2y ago
  Yes, you'll always have some that don't fit the mold. Off the top of my head: bisqwit pwnfunction cherno However, it's like picking through a dung pile looking for the needle, or something like that. You're better off reading some books, the news, experimenting on your own, etc.
rchaud 2y ago
You left out one of the biggest categories: "tech reviews" that are basically 30-minute infomercials in 4K.

tiew9Vii 2y ago

I discovered “Developer Voices” recently https://youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices https://youtube.com/@DeveloperVoices. It’s more a podcast style channel, with a different guest on each episode with experience in a different area of tech/computer science they discuss. No memes, no clickbait, no how to be a tech lead just mixed varied interesting computer science content/topics. Agree with the other posters though, generally tech channels are junk full of charlatans.

incomingpain 2y ago

Network Chuck Jeff Geerling Ippsec Linus Tech Tips Louis Rossman kinda. 3d printing nerd cnc kitchen makers muse zack freedman tech ingredients marques brownlee adam savage tested There's probably a bunch more, but honestly kind of watching more gun related stuff lately. Garand thumb, kentucky ballistics, etc.

al_borland 2y ago

Dave's Garage is pretty interesting. He worked at Microsoft and wrote things like the Task Manager and Zip folders. He tells old stories and gives the inside scoop on how some of those things came to be.

pcdoodle 2y ago
I second this: Dave Plumber / Dave's Garage, love his content.

SilverCode 2y ago

Nir Lichtman - Sub 10 min videos on mostly C and Assembly programming Low Level Learning - Sub 10 min videos with a leaning towards the security aspect of code Ben Eater - Making a computer from scratch Fireship - 100 seconds of X to help me keep up with whatever tech stack my colleagues are proposing this week IppSec - Security and Hacking Jacob Sorber - Various programming topics, mostly around C javidx9 - Game programming topics, most writing old-school game engines Low Byte Productions - Long form videos (1+ hours) on low level topics Nathan Baggs - Hacks old games to get them working again The Coding Train - Various fun programming topics mostly around visualization and graphics, done in the format of a kids program TJ DeVries - Teaches you how to exit vim, and other vim stuff typecraft - Neovim and tmux tutorials, plugins, configurations etc

impish9208 2y ago

I hate the new trend where they make ridiculous faces on the thumbnails. I know they’re doing it because it must be increasing engagement, but it’s so annoying.

noman-land 2y ago
This has been a trend for like 10 years already. Yes, it annoys me too but they apparently have the numbers to prove it gets more engagement, which is even more annoying.
pcdoodle 2y ago
I wonder if it's more engagement due to impressions or people actually click on dumb looking faces more often.
sphars 2y ago
If you're able to install extensions, this one[0] removes the clickbaity thumbnails and titles using crowdsourced data. It's from the same developer of SponsorBlock [0]: https://dearrow.ajay.app/ https://dearrow.ajay.app/
rchaud 2y ago
New trend? This is YT's original sin: allowing uploaders to use any image as a thumbnail, instead of picking a frame from the video.
- pimlottc 2y ago
  Custom thumbnails weren't a feature on YouTube until maybe 2010 or so. Before that, they had to be a frame from the video, and originally you couldn't even choose which frame. So I wouldn't exactly call it an "original sin".
Havoc 2y ago
It’s less a trend and more that yt rewards it. Not sure if that is actively rewarded by algo or just organic but I recall when it started some YouTubers being reluctant but did it anyway because it worked. Think some even semi A B tested it

slowfox 2y ago

Outstanding, not only because they are great teachers but, above all, because I percieve them as incredibly likeable personalities: 1. Kevin Powell (Kevin Powell) - CSS 2. Daniel Schiffmann (The Coding Train) - Creative Coding

okdood64 2y ago

Asianometry for the background and history of industry; with a particular focus on semiconductors.

RedlineTriad 2y ago

Some of my favorites are: Acerola, GPU and shader programming: https://www.youtube.com/@Acerola_t https://www.youtube.com/@Acerola_t Sebastian Lague, various mostly visual algorithms for games: https://www.youtube.com/@SebastianLague https://www.youtube.com/@SebastianLague Freya Holmér, beautiful game dev related math: https://www.youtube.com/@acegikmo https://www.youtube.com/@acegikmo pannenkoek2012, how Mario 64 limitations create the most interesting bugs: https://www.youtube.com/@pannenkoek2012 https://www.youtube.com/@pannenkoek2012 Jon Gjengset, some of the most in-depth rust content: https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo https://www.youtube.com/@jonhoo AngeTheGreat, physics engine game dev including sound simulation: https://www.youtube.com/@AngeTheGreat https://www.youtube.com/@AngeTheGreat fasterthanlime, diverse, mostly rust content: https://www.youtube.com/@fasterthanlime https://www.youtube.com/@fasterthanlime Bisqwit, retro programming: https://www.youtube.com/@Bisqwit https://www.youtube.com/@Bisqwit CodeParade, higher dimensional and fractal game dev: https://www.youtube.com/@CodeParade https://www.youtube.com/@CodeParade suckerpinch, code that should not be though of, let alone executed: https://www.youtube.com/@tom7 https://www.youtube.com/@tom7 SimonDev, game dev, performance focused, video quality varies: https://www.youtube.com/@simondev758 https://www.youtube.com/@simondev758 And many mentioned by SilverCode

nickradford 2y ago
Acerola and Sebastian Lague are two of my favorites too, good taste!

glouwbug 2y ago

Bisqwit

ezekg 2y ago

One of my favorites is Optimum: https://www.youtube.com/@optimumtech https://www.youtube.com/@optimumtech. Lots of gnarly PC builds. I cloned his negative pressure Ghost S1 SFFPC build (but with a deshrouded Sapphire RX 5700 XT+ and Ryzen 3700x) and I absolutely love it.

jpsouth 2y ago

John Hammond - Cyber security/ethical hacking. He explains what he's doing well enough for even someone like me, with very little cybersec knowledge, to follow along and understand. Someone else also commented Nathan Baggs, also a great explainer of what he's doing (and he hacks some fantastic old school games too).

tanseydavid 2y ago

Youtube channel "bigclivedotcom" does teardowns of consumer electronic crap from AliBaba, Amazon etc. with a soothing British accent and wit.

iamflimflam1 2y ago

Me! I actually quite enjoy watching my own videos (some of them anyway…) https://www.youtube.com/atomic14 https://www.youtube.com/atomic14

gnatman 2y ago

@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER - experiments with circuit bending, synths, and other instruments https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCafxR2HWJRmMfSdyZXvZMTw

1ilit 2y ago

have to add tsoding to the already mentioned channels

ohthatsnotright 2y ago

Quite a few of mine are already mentioned but if you're into retro-computers or restoration, I find Usagi Electric to be an incredible wealth of knowledge: https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric Also enjoy https://www.youtube.com/@Computerphile https://www.youtube.com/@Computerphile for more in depth videos

RockRobotRock 2y ago

Cathode Ray Dude

Tomte 2y ago

Technology Connections

ruslan 2y ago

I vote for Ben Eater and for a number of others 8-bit guys.

mindwork 2y ago

Recently discovered ThePrimeagen videos on youtube https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen https://www.youtube.com/@ThePrimeTimeagen From my existing subscriptions: - Just Another CTO https://www.youtube.com/@justanothercto https://www.youtube.com/@justanothercto - Techno Tim https://www.youtube.com/@TechnoTim https://www.youtube.com/@TechnoTim - Wolfgang's Channel https://www.youtube.com/@WolfgangsChannel https://www.youtube.com/@WolfgangsChannel - TechWorld with Nana https://www.youtube.com/@TechWorldwithNana https://www.youtube.com/@TechWorldwithNana

Havoc 2y ago
Also craft computing - similar to techno Tim

wifijammer 2y ago

More on the entertainment side than educational (but if you understand engineering/coding you would highly appreciate the work that goes into some of these videos) https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelreeves https://www.youtube.com/c/michaelreeves https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRober https://youtube.com/c/theHacksmith https://youtube.com/c/theHacksmith

leke 2y ago

ThePrimeTime is an entertaining and interesting coder.

AstmmetryAware 2y ago

Mental Outlaw for sure.

tmtvl 2y ago

Casey Muratori and Will Byrd, though I'm not that big on tech youtubers. Strange Loop was also pretty great and I can't believe I have to say 'was' there, but so it goes.

reportgunner 2y ago

I gotta mention styropyro[0] even though he doesn't deal with computers at all - his channel is all about crazy overpowered lasers and sometimes some crazy chemistry. [0] https://www.youtube.com/@styropyro https://www.youtube.com/@styropyro