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The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8)

wonderingmind42 · lecture · Watch on YouTube

University lectures & coursesEnvironment, agriculture & food systemsPure mathematics

What it is

Part 1 of a lecture by physicist Albert Bartlett on the exponential function and its consequences for population growth, resource use and energy. It argues that steady growth rates quickly lead to enormous quantities.

Why Hacker News recommends it

A perennial HN recommendation for building intuition about exponential growth, cited whenever endless growth, energy or population come up.

  • 13 people recommended it
  • 10 different months
  • 5 strong recommendations
  • first 2010, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “I strongly recommend it”

    Bartlett's sobering lecture on arithmetic, population, energy

    dredmorbius, 2011-08 · Strong recommendation · in “Galactic-Scale Energy”

  2. “It blew my mind when I first watched it two years ago”

    Mind-blowing Bartlett lecture on population and energy

    mark_up, 2011-10 · Strong recommendation · in “What is the Limit to Human Population Growth?”

  3. “stick with it; it's really captivating and interesting”

    Captivating series on how small growth rates double quickly

    tristanperry, 2011-10 · Strong recommendation · in “You are the nth person alive on earth”

  4. “Exponential growth is unintuitive, and chasing endless growth is not going to work out well for us.”

    Famous Bartlett lecture on limits of endless growth

    jodrellblank, 2019-06 · Strong recommendation · in “The poisons released by melting Arctic ice”

  5. “which is less hyperbole than you might think; the lecture is riveting”

    Riveting Bartlett lecture, less hyperbolic than its title

    stouset, 2025-08 · Strong recommendation · in “The Sunlight Budget of Earth”

  6. “The Greatest Shortcoming of the Human Race is our inability to understand the exponential function”

    Bartlett lecture on inability to grasp exponential function

    dflock, 2010-04 · Recommendation · in “Peak Everything?”

  7. “has an excellent lecture on its implications for population growth, environmental degradation, and other big picture problems”

    Excellent Bartlett lecture on exponential growth implications

    SkyMarshal, 2010-10 · Recommendation · in “How Fake Money Saved Brazil”

  8. “Well worth watching.”

    A video suggesting population will eventually fall

    cletus, 2010-10 · Recommendation · in “The middle class is over. It's not coming back.”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: albert bartlett, exponential function, population growth, sustainability, energy

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