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Ask HN: YouTube channels like Ben Eater but for CS, programming and math?

66 points by newsoul ↗ HN
I like that Ben Eater's videos are not some popular tech video. They actually teach something with great care and detail. He uses pen paper explanations and not slide presentations.

The moving hand and pen paper feedback seems better to me for the same reason a chalk and blackboard wins anyday to me.

Are there similar channels in the domains of CS, programming and math?

I am interested in these 3 subjects. But if you have a favourite from some other subject which you think people should know of then go ahead share that too. I sometimes watch in depth physics or bio videos.

I like the in-depth part and without slide mayhem (that people now call education). Animation is all good if used appropriately like 3blue1brown.

14 comments

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maxbond
I think this space is booming. Here's a by no means exhaustive list, in no particular order. (Some of them are more responsive to the prompt than others, but all of them have meaty technical content.)

https://www.youtube.com/@ArjanCodes - Python channel, I haven't watched much of it but what I've watched was good, and I have a friend who's found it very useful

https://www.youtube.com/@JonGjengset - Excellent Rust streamer, and does great intermediate & beginner tutorials (with some advanced material). Probably the most direct comparison to Ben Eater; Gjengset's signature is multi-hour videos where he codes things like hashmaps or a TCP implementation in real time, debugging included.

https://www.youtube.com/@Fireship - Byte-sized introductions to popular or up-and-coming technologies, with something of a frontend focus. Great way to get inspiration from technologies you wouldn't otherwise dig into.

https://www.youtube.com/@ByteByteGo - Introductions to system design/distributed systems concepts.

https://www.youtube.com/@CMUDatabaseGroup - Talks from creators of established and up-and-coming databases, and lectures about database theory. If you're learning a new database, even a weird one, you can probably find an in-depth discussion of it's low level details here.

https://www.youtube.com/@kleppmann - Talks & lectures about distributed systems from the author of, "Designing Data-Intensive Applications"

https://www.youtube.com/@Reducible - 3blue1blue style animations (with their own distinct twist) for programming topics.

https://www.youtube.com/@3blue1brown - I know you already mentioned 3b1b, but it can't be recommended enough. If you haven't checked this out, watch their series on linear algebra. It is some of the best math pedagogy of all time. If you've never been taught math in a way that felt exciting and like problem solving, please do yourself the favor of trying this channel out.

https://www.youtube.com/@Mathologer - Mathematical deep dives

Some Brady Haran channels (brief introductions, puzzles/problems, interviews with luminaries like Conway or Knuth - Haran runs a huge number of channels, so keep in mind there are more that may interest you)

https://www.youtube.com/@numberphile

https://www.youtube.com/@Computerphile

Honorable mentions that are somewhat tangential:

https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections - Not per say a technical channel, more the history of a given technology and how it interacted with it's culture, but great content that any technologist will enjoy. The technology is not just discussed but demonstrated; eg, when discussing Betamax and VHS, he gets these old players working, shows them to you, and helps you feel what watching these formats was like. Hands down one of the best video essayists.

These lectures (I'll be honest and...

joe__f
Ben Eater is a great channel. What's with 'Eater' though? Is that his surname? Or is it some kind of pun maybe?
OJFord
Pretty sure it's just his name.
joe__f
Huh, sounds really weird to me. Maybe more normal for Americans? I'm British
OJFord
I'm also British, don't think I've met/heard of any other Eaters, but to be honest I did just assume it was his name when I came across his channel; now it's familiar.

I suppose because 'Ben <some word which isn't his actual name>' would seem weirder to me? Like if it were 'Ben Drinker' (and not an ale reviews channel or something).

sph
I really enjoy Reducible's content. Two videos to get you started:

The unreasonable effectiveness of JPEG: A signal processing approach — https://youtu.be/0me3guauqOU

How PNG works: compromising speed for quality — https://youtu.be/EFUYNoFRHQI

These videos go deep in the details on how they work, and use excellent animation to drive the point home. Honestly reminds me of 3blue1brown for CS. With 200k subscribers, Reducible is way underrated.

kisonecat
For math, I have a lot of videos that use pens and little bits of paper. An example is https://youtu.be/7oWMaNg4Ezw which discusses the rearrangement of the terms in a conditionally convergent series.