# The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar

9 Hacker News commenters recommended The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as the clearest explanation of how transformers work, with visuals that help readers grasp the ideas. Critics raised no complaints.

## Why people recommend it

- Best explanation of transformers (2 comments): "this particular blog post was the first and is still the best explanation of how transformers work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46359191)) "I can't recommend enough, The Illustrated Transformer" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49794250))
- Clear visuals aid understanding (2 comments): "It really clicked to me after reading this two" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46358003)) "the visualizations were really helpful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46359565))
- Helpful for beginners and catching up (2 comments): "Excellent resource for beginners" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49795667)) "Really a life savior to help me catching up a few months ago" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46358128))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Grug Brained Developer by Carson Gross](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grug-brained-developer.md): 13 recommend
- [Choose Boring Technology by Dan McKinley](https://hackerapproved.com/p/choose-boring-technology.md): 11 recommend
- [The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bitter-lesson.md): 10 recommend
- [Things You Should Never Do by Joel Spolsky](https://hackerapproved.com/p/things-you-should-never-do.md): 10 recommend
- [A Social Filesystem by Dan Abramov](https://hackerapproved.com/p/a-social-filesystem.md): 8 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Illustrated Transformer by Jay Alammar", https://hackerapproved.com/p/illustrated-transformer/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).