Worst Software Bugs Explained in 12 Minutes

A $370 million rocket exploded because of one number. The worst software bugs in history — Therac-25, Knight Capital, CrowdStrike — drawn simply. A radiation machine that overdosed its patients. A trading firm that lost $460 million in 45 minutes. A Mars probe killed by a unit mix-up. One bad update that crashed the planet. And the two-digit year that cost the world $300 billion to fix. Six software bugs, six disasters — every one of them caused by code doing exactly what it was told. Subscribe for new videos twice a week. This is The Drawn Lesson. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Ariane 5 — the $370 million overflow 02:07 Therac-25 — the machine that killed patients 04:01 Knight Capital — $460 million in 45 minutes 05:58 Mars Climate Orbiter — lost over units 07:11 CrowdStrike — the day the world crashed 09:13 Y2K — the $300 billion bug SOURCES Ariane 5: ESA Inquiry Board report, Flight 501 failure (1996) Therac-25: Leveson & Turner, "An Investigation of the Therac-25 Accidents," IEEE Computer (1993) Knight Capital: SEC administrative order (2013); company announcements (loss estimated at $460M) Mars Climate Orbiter: NASA Mishap Investigation Board report (1999) CrowdStrike: CrowdStrike preliminary post-incident review (2024); Microsoft estimate of 8.5M affected devices Y2K: Gartner worldwide remediation cost estimates; US GAO reports MUSIC "Darkest Child" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... AI DISCLOSURE Voiceover generated with AI. All visuals hand-directed. AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE [Placeholder — add when the first affiliate link is approved]