Neom - The Line - The Rise and Fall of Saudi Arabia's Linear City.
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as the entertaining, skeptical overview of Neom whenever its progress comes up.
What it is
Patrick Boyle's deadpan account of Saudi Arabia's Neom and The Line megaproject, a planned 170 km linear city that has been scaled back to a fraction of its size. He covers the feasibility problems and the financing.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2024 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec tim333 · 2025-03 · on “What Went Wrong at Saudi Arabia's Futuristic Metropolis in the Desert”
It was kind of a duff idea from the start. Patrick Boyles youtube Neom - The Line - The Rise and Fall of Saudi Arabia's Linear City [this video] is rather epic if you haven't seen it.
Recommends karaterobot · 2024-04 · on “Saudi Arabia's Sci-Fi Megacity in the Desert Isn't Going Well”
Patrick Boyle's channel on Youtube did a great video on this. [this video] It seems unfeasible, bordering on impossible, and also a terrible idea even if aliens came down and built it for us tomorrow.
Recommends tim333 · 2024-10 · on “Saudi Arabian Neom project 'uses one fifth of world's steel'”
I think not. They probably mean the planned project would use one fifth of the world's steel but it is currently just a hole in the ground and the project is kind of ridiculous and won't get built as planned - even the Saudis don't have enough money. Patrick Boyle had an entertaining youtube on it [this video]
Recommends tim333 · 2025-11 · on “The AI bubble is bigger than you think”
It's been rather extraordinary. The Patrick Boyle vid on Neom done about a year ago was entertaining ( [this video] ). As might be expected that's all ground to a halt now.
Cites seanhunter · 2024-12 · on “Yotta Bank and the Problem with Fintech (Patrick Boyle) [video]”
Patrick Boyle has a running joke about how his goal is for his channel to be the number one channel on you tube covering rap and related topics but he sometimes gets distracted by other things. I think it started because of him making fun of people like influencers and their attempts to do things like rap, and rappers who shill crypto schemes. He basically covers what you might call popular finance topics but with an extremely dry sense of humour. You might say he’s a bit like a youtube version of Matt Levine but his jokes are perhaps more deadpan. To get a general idea of his usual schtick a good example is his coverage of neom the line [this video]
Cites freefaler · 2024-12 · on “Yotta Bank and the Problem with Fintech (Patrick Boyle) [video]”
Yeah, as mentioned by him here: [this video] "...I don't usually cover topics like that on this channel. As regular viewers know, my videos are mostly about rap and rapping, with my goal being to become the number one crypto-nerd gangster rap channel on YouTube. However, sometimes I do get distracted by other topics. Anyhow, Bloomberg reported this week that Saudi Arabia is scaling back its medium-term ambitions."
Cites smcin · 2025-06 · on “Everything you need to know about Egypt's new capital city”
Doesn't count. Egypt's New Administrative Capital is located only 45km east of Cairo. Whereas previous epic fails on relocating capitals (/planned cities): - Nigeria's Abuja (1991) [0] is 330 mi/530 km northeast of Lagos, 1h20 by plane or 12hr by car. Fairly successful relocation. - Myanmar's Naypyidaw (2008) is 320 km/200 mi north of Yangon [1] Claimed 2025 population 930K, actual 780-900K. - Indonesia's Nusantara ("will be fully finished in five phases by 2045, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Indonesia") is on Borneo, 870 mi/11400 km and one island northeast of Jakarta [2] - also Saudi Arabia previously had King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC, planned since 2005), not a capital repl