Linked in threads about meritocracy, careers and startups as a reminder that luck shapes who ends up on top.
Topics › Mathematics & Theoretical CS
The best probability & game theory videos, according to Hacker News
52 videos about probability & game theory that Hacker News commenters keep pointing each other to, ranked by how many separate months they were recommended. Part of Mathematics & Theoretical CS.
HN's go-to explainer for why FPTP leads to a two-party system, linked in countless voting-reform and US politics threads.
HN commenters reach for it constantly as an approachable explanation of why cooperation and reciprocity are rational strategies.
HN's go-to link whenever ranked-choice voting or voting reform comes up, because it explains the mechanics quickly and entertainingly.
The canonical real-world example in game theory discussions of manipulating a prisoner's dilemma.
HN recommends it as an engaging lesson in probability and in how statistics can expose cheating.
HN commenters cite it in voting-reform threads as a visual argument that cardinal systems (STAR, approval) beat plurality and ranked-choice voting.
HN's go-to link whenever Bayesian reasoning, base rates or imperfect tests come up.
HN points to it as a reasoned rebuttal to the claim that AI risk is just Pascal's wager.
The standard link in ranked-choice voting threads to show IRV does not eliminate the spoiler effect.
Recommended in game-theory and cooperation threads, with the whole lecture series endorsed.
HN people use it as a clear, quick explanation of Nash equilibrium and why competitors cluster.
Recommended as an accessible demonstration that people are bad at producing or judging random sequences.
HN recommends it as an excellent programmer-friendly explanation of p-values and statistical thinking.
HN cites it as the classic demonstration of survivorship and confirmation bias in betting, trading and prediction claims.
HN recommends it as a short, accessible intro to Bayesian reasoning and priors.
HN recommends it as an entertaining way to learn math through juggling.
Recommended on Ask HN threads as a high-quality free probability course for relearning math or building an ML foundation.
HN recommends it as an accessible, well-visualized entry point to Hackenbush, surreal numbers and their link to Nim.
HN points to it as the best talk on how people misunderstand probabilities and how designers handle that.
HN recommends it as part of Primer's strong series of evolution and emergence simulations.
HN commenters point to it as a well-argued rebuttal of Dark Forest axioms, and recommend his wider Fermi Paradox series.
Linked in electoral-system discussions as a quick, clear argument against the electoral college.
HN points to it as a good, anecdote-filled introduction to the math of shuffling from the expert himself.
HN people recommend it as the most intuitive introduction to Bayes' theorem and cite it in base-rate arguments.
HN points to it for an accessible explanation of why wealth and creative output are so unevenly distributed.
Recommended as a short, fun introduction to micromorts and thinking about risk.
HN cites it in LLM randomness and number-picking threads as evidence that humans are also biased and predictable when asked for random numbers.
HN people link it as a short, funny and accurate explanation of why over-testing and over-screening can do harm.
HN cites it when arguing that different risks follow different distributions and should be judged by growth rates and tails rather than current counts.
Cited for its well-known attempt to convey the size of 52 factorial.
HN points to it as an accessible introduction to Bayesian reasoning and as inspiration for personal projects.
HN cites it in algorithmic-bias threads for the impossibility result that an algorithm cannot be procedurally fair, group fair and maximally useful at once.
HN commenters link it in voting-reform discussions as a concise explanation of range voting versus other systems.
Used to illustrate that humans pattern-match and find spurious patterns in enough data points.
HN commenters link it to explain why plurality voting produces two-party systems and how ranked-choice voting suffers spoiler effects.
Mentioned whenever the optimal stopping or secretary problem comes up in relation to choosing a partner.
The go-to short explanation whenever lava lamps, entropy sources, or Cloudflare randomness come up.
Used as a friendly example of high-dimensional geometry showing up in a simple problem, and of ball volume shrinking inside a hypercube.
HN links it as a fun explanation of the purely mechanical Dr. Nim game in threads about early game computers and marble-based binary math.
HN people cite it as a short explanation of how aggregated individual guesses approach the truth.
HN recommends it as an excellent, detailed history of Markov chains, often in threads on Markov models and language models.
It is the standard reference for why rand() is broken in C++ and what to use instead.
HN mentions it mostly in passing as a Taleb talk on market volatility and predicting crises.
Used as a quick, convincing demonstration of crowd estimation when discussing aggregated judgment.
Cited in threads on random sampling as a clear illustration of how reasonable-sounding random choices can give biased results.
Cited as a mathematician's debunking of numerical claims of 2020 election fraud.
HN uses it as the reference for counting how many songs or melodies are possible from a finite set of notes.
Linked when someone needs a quick accessible source for the claim that every voting method has flaws.
Mostly used as a joke or parody reference, and occasionally as the canonical illustration of leveled, second-order thinking.
Used as a reference for the perseverance behind improbable streaks and selective reporting of best runs.
HN commenters cite it as the accessible summary of the Dark Forest theory whenever SETI, alien contact, or hostile-environment analogies come up.
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