---
title: 'Every Mistake I''ve Made Since 2014'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=lIbfMjZ0ME4'
video_id: 'lIbfMjZ0ME4'
date: 2026-07-23
duration_sec: 726
channel: 'Tom Scott'
---

# Every Mistake I've Made Since 2014

> Source: [Every Mistake I've Made Since 2014](https://youtube.com/watch?v=lIbfMjZ0ME4)

## Summary

Tom Scott reviews every significant factual error he has made in his YouTube videos over the past decade, from misidentified submarines to physics blunders. He reflects on the lessons learned and the importance of fact-checking.

### Key Points

- **2014: Trident vs Vanguard submarines** [01:15] — Tom incorrectly stated the UK has four Trident-class nuclear submarines; they are actually Vanguard-class.
- **Tachycardia definition and toaster tech** [01:42] — He misdefined tachycardia (it's accelerated heartbeat, not slow) and incorrectly claimed modern toasters use bi-metallic strips.
- **Summer equinox error** [02:11] — He said 'summer equinox' but equinox occurs in spring and autumn; 'equi nox' means equal night.
- **Concorde crash date** [02:55] — He implied Concorde crashed in 2003; the crash was in 2000, and airlines decided to retire it in 2003.
- **Nuclear fallout: air vs ground bursts** [03:08] — He claimed air bursts spread fallout wider; ground bursts actually produce more fallout.
- **Reservoir water volume** [03:22] — He said a dam held back 100,000 tonnes of water; the correct figure is 47 million tons.
- **Civilization Gandhi bug myth** [03:39] — He repeated the myth that Gandhi had a bug causing nuclear aggression; it's a collective false memory.
- **Psychology replication crisis** [04:12] — He made a video on psychology studies that later failed replication, calling it his worst video.
- **Russian road visa claim** [05:07] — He implied a road through Russia was used for spying, but there's no evidence; it was just a road.
- **Turbine rotation speed** [05:44] — He said turbines spin thousands of times per second; it's per minute.
- **PRT never shuts down** [06:13] — He quoted an administrator saying the PRT never shuts down, but it does shut down regularly.
- **Free fall distance miscalculation** [06:57] — He said a drop capsule travels 10m in the first second; correct distance is 5m (due to acceleration).
- **Gold mine production units** [07:24] — He said 200,000 tons of gold; the mine produced 200,000 kilograms (tonnes vs kilos error).
- **CPU compilation error** [08:07] — He said compiling for a Mac vs PC CPU; but Macs use different architecture (Apple Silicon).
- **Clock cycle miscount** [08:23] — He said 'counting upwards by one on every sixth clock cycle' but meant something else.
- **Who Wants to Be a Millionaire rule** [08:36] — He misstated a rule about breaks; the original version had different rules.
- **Hornsdale battery fire** [09:17] — He claimed the Hornsdale Power Reserve caught fire; it was the Victorian Big Battery.
- **Swiss German translation** [09:31] — He mistranslated 'Schutzwaffen' as defensive weapons; it's not Swiss German.
- **Chainmail construction** [10:02] — He said chainmail was all hand-linked; sheets were hand-linked but made by machine.
- **Library card interview requirement** [10:18] — He said a library requires an interview for a card; the requirement has been dropped.

### Conclusion

Tom Scott's retrospective highlights the importance of rigorous fact-checking and humility in content creation. He acknowledges that even experienced creators make mistakes and encourages viewers to verify information.

## Transcript

I've made some mistakes. I will pin a comment to the video, I'll add a card, But not many people will see those compared to the original video.
So with only a few weeks left until I stop posting regular Monday videos, at all the things I got wrong in the last ten years. Which I have no regrets about using and whose Black Friday sale is now on.
So: what counts as a significant mistake for this video? Well, An editing glitch, or a typo in a caption, They're still going to haunt me for the rest of my days,
And it has to be a regular Monday video that's live on this channel: I am sure some of the facts on Lateral, the podcast I run, despite the question writers' best efforts, but here,
You should go and listen to Lateral after, though. I despise anything I've made in the past, But that's where we start.
2014, when my research usually involved typing a couple of things into Google "The UK has four Trident-class nuclear submarines." Never mind, it'll happen to you as well.
the submarines are Vanguard-class. not just the big one, I hate that video. I nearly pulled it entirely.
Nope, tachycardia is an accelerated heartbeat. Also, hold the phone further from your face! Modern toasters don't use bi-metallic strips,
or specialised silicon. Alec over at Technology Connections has a great video about them. and I got a big detail in it wrong.
the 24-hour sundial. There are several places and I wish I'd saved them for later. "It is the summer equinox today, as I record this."
The equinox is in spring and autumn, It's in the name?! "Equi nox", "equal night" Later that year, I was talking about Concorde.
Again, not a good video, but... The words are correct,
The crash was in 2000, I should have said: "...in 2003 the airlines decided".
Next video, about tracking nuclear explosions from Cold War bunkers. "air bursts that spread it much wider?" Ground bursts from nuclear explosions spread more fallout than air bursts,
given they're blowing up the ground and not the air. "More than 50 metres high, holding back 100,000 tonnes of water." but 47 million tons of water.
for the volume of the reservoir it held back. 2016, then. The year with the most errors. "In the original version of the video game, Civilisation, Gandhi was a dick."
the virtual representation of Gandhi in a fictional video game! testifying that a bug in the game Civilisation could go negative and then loop round to being massive.
turns out it was some giant collective false memory. Now, I also had a whole video Might be the worst video I've ever done,
after watching it back for this. It's just a confusing mess, And this was before the replication crisis, too, when psychology was still flush with astonishing results
A lot of those studies have not survived attempts to recreate them. I'm not sure I'd agree with that either, though?
eh, I dunno. Depends on you. drove along a road that goes through Russia for about one kilometre,
you don't need a visa. But as we're approaching, Matt says: "Is where they're spying from." "Ah!" "Oh, you're right!"
there is no evidence for it being any more than that. Matt had just noticed a thing, and said it,
I kept it in. My fault, not his. Next one: I was talking about turbines in thermal power plants. "hundreds of tonnes of steel, rotating thousands of times a second"
No, they spin thousands of times per minute, not per second. Obviously! is spinning several thousand times a second, something is very wrong, Probably because I was kinda stressed from being on top of a wind turbine.
I'm not going to play the actual clip back, someone who was kind enough to give an interview many years ago, but: I was talking to one of the administrators of West Virginia University,
and he said the "PRT never shuts down". At night. On Sundays. Outside term times. Regularly when there are mechanical failures.
I guess it was said aspirationally or metaphorically, And to be clear, that's on me. don't end up saying something silly in the final video.
I start finding my style, we're three years into making these videos Only one error that whole year, but it's a doozy. "In the first second after release, the drop capsule goes 10 metres.
"Next second, forty... and then we've used up That is wrong. Yes, the speed increases by 10 metres per second, per second.
10 metres per second is close enough for this. But that doesn't mean it travels 10 metres in the first second, It'd travel 5 metres in the first second, then 15, then 25, and so on.
Zero gravity is really confusing. "in the 20th century, more than 200,000 tons of gold Giant Mine in Canada produced 200,000 kilos of gold. Not tonnes.
which is the problem they now have. 200,000 tonnes of gold would be roughly the same amount so, you know, just slightly out there.
2019. Two weird mistakes in the same computer-science script. "a Mac instead of a PC, I can compile it for that CPU instead."
Although given the recent switch to Apple Silicon, "And we're counting upwards by one on every sixth clock cycle" And I just said the wrong words and didn't notice during the edit.
2020. I know that I said typos in on-screen graphics don't count, because you copied-and-pasted a 1 into the wrong place, I was talking about the rules
"And the host says..." "Time for a break." "Like, it's really clear that's not allowed, there's no other way to read that sentence." back 20+ years ago when the original version of Millionaire came out.
and it's now ambiguous whether that's allowed. it wasn't flagged as being replaced, and I just didn't spot that I was using the old version in my script.
2021. Skipping over the 18th-century firefighters video that I did a "Even the big lithium-ion setup in Australia that's only caught on fire once so far."
I just thought I knew what I was talking about and I didn't double-check it. Hornsdale Power Reserve didn't catch fire! It was the newer Victorian Big Battery, near Geelong.
Your battery did not catch on fire! was mistakenly transcribed as "Schutzwaffen", defensive weapons. ...but not Swiss German, and that's a pretty easy mistake to make.
2022. No errors that are still online, I did originally suggest that the chainmail was all hand-linked. The sheets were hand-linked, but those sheets were made by machine.
that could be easily and cleanly cropped out using YouTube's editor, And then, this year, at least this year so far! You can see exactly how that happened.
"if you want to get a library card here, there will be a short interview "about your research and why you can't just pull the books or material you want Apparently the formal interview requirement for a reader pass,
has now been dropped. because that would be ironic, and it's probably going to happen. which says, in short: "cock-up before conspiracy",
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