Probability & Game Theory Videos Hacker News Recommends

explainer#173

Why Being Delusional is a Superpower

Veritasium

“if you attribute just 5% of outcomes to luck, then the people who have the best outcomes are among the luckiest people”

9 HN recommenders · 2020–2024

explainer#197

Why Your Vote Doesn't Count

CGP Grey

“this CGP Grey video explains how a first-past-the-post voting system all-but-guarantees a two party system to emerge over time”

10 HN recommenders · 2015–2025

explainer#288

Once you understand game theory, you understand the world.

Veritasium

“Veratasium just made an approachable video on this subject recently, I definitely recommend.”

10 HN recommenders · 2023–2026

explainer#336

The Voting System That Should Replace Every Election

CGP Grey

“I've been a huge fan of this system ever since CGP Grey made an excellent video on how it works and why it's great.”

7 HN recommenders · 2012–2021

other#571

golden balls. the weirdest split or steal ever!

spinout3

“This is a classic IMO.”

5 HN recommenders · 2012–2025

explainer#728

How lucky is too lucky?: The Minecraft Speedrunning Dream Controversy Explained

Stand-up Maths

“It not only exposes the cheater, it also gives some intuition into negligible probabilities.”

5 HN recommenders · 2021–2025

explainer#988

Animated Voting Methods

Unify The Vote

“I always recommend this pair of videos when discussing STAR voting vs other alternative systems.”

3 HN recommenders · 2018–2022

explainer#1144

The medical test paradox, and redesigning Bayes' rule

3Blue1Brown

“is a brilliant introduction to the concept”

4 HN recommenders · 2020–2025

explainer#1264

Is AI Safety a Pascal's Mugging?

Robert Miles AI Safety

“the main point of the video is that kind of situation happens when the probability involved is vanishingly small”

3 HN recommenders · 2019–2026

explainer#1267

How our voting system (and IRV) betrays your favourite candidate

The Center for Election Science

“here's a video explaining the strategic voting issue”

5 HN recommenders · 2014–2023

lecture#1329

2. Behavioral Evolution

Stanford

“This entire lecture series on Human Behavioral Biology is worth watching from the beginning”

3 HN recommenders · 2016–2021

explainer#1379

Why do competitors open their stores next to one another? - Jac de Haan

TED-Ed

“this is the best explanation i've found so far on Nash's Equilibrium”

3 HN recommenders · 2015–2025

explainer#1430

Randomness is Random - Numberphile

Numberphile

“Here's a great video demonstrating how people tend to misunderstand randomness”

4 HN recommenders · 2019–2022

talk#1506

John Rauser keynote: "Statistics Without the Agonizing Pain" -- Strata + Hadoop 2014

O'Reilly

“This is an excellent talk I attended a while ago that explains it very well from a programmer's perspective”

3 HN recommenders · 2015–2025

documentary#1538

Derren Brown - The System (Full)

ScepticaTV

“Here's an entertaining video from Derren Brown that shows how to use this technique to convince people you have psychic powers”

3 HN recommenders · 2013–2017

talk#1552

A visual guide to Bayesian thinking

Julia Galef

“The most important mathematical video you will ever see in your life.”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2021

lecture#1581

Math Encounters -- Five Balls, Two Hands: The Patterns of Juggling -- Colin Wright (Presentation)

National Museum of Mathematics

“my fondness for this video that uses juggling to good effect to teach math in an entertaining way”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2026

lecture#1607

Lecture 1: Probability and Counting | Statistics 110

Harvard University

“I have used and can vouch for the high quality of all of them”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2018

explainer#1688

HACKENBUSH: a window to a new world of math

Owen Maitzen

“I found the following video extremely useful and well-visualized”

3 HN recommenders · 2022–2025

talk#1706

GDC 2010: Sid Meier Keynote - "Everything You Know is Wrong"

GameSpot

“Sid Meier (Civilization) gave a great GDC keynote in 2010”

2 HN recommenders · 2014–2019

explainer#1751

Simulating Green Beard Altruism

Primer

“Primer, who's had a great string of genetic/evolution simulation videos”

3 HN recommenders · 2021

explainer#1877

The Fermi Paradox: Dark Forest Theory

Isaac Arthur

“His entire library on the Fermi Paradox is worth watching.”

2 HN recommenders · 2019–2024

explainer#1936

You Can Win the Presidency With 22% of the Vote

CGP Grey

“you can effectively become president if you can get the right 22% of the USA to vote for you.”

3 HN recommenders · 2015–2020

interview#1961

The Best (and Worst) Ways to Shuffle Cards - Numberphile

Numberphile

“It gives a lot of insight and anectdotes in addition to the central theorem”

3 HN recommenders · 2015–2026

explainer#2444

Bayes theorem, the geometry of changing beliefs

3Blue1Brown

“There's a very cool 3Blue1Brown video [0] that helps give you an intuitive feel for Bayes Theorem.”

2 HN recommenders · 2022–2024

lecture#2518

Jordan Peterson - Pareto Distributions

Bite-sized Philosophy

“Jordan Peterson has an excellent lecture on describing this phenomenon.”

2 HN recommenders · 2017–2021

explainer#2557

Cambridge Ideas - Professor Risk

Cambridge University

“Here is great video by Cambridge Ideas about the risk of dying from various activities (measured in micromorts)”

2 HN recommenders · 2013–2022

explainer#2573

Why is this number everywhere?

Veritasium

“humans are fairly predictable when trying to come up with random numbers, for example, have a look at this Veritasium video”

2 HN recommenders · 2024–2026

explainer#2825

If money was no object, should you run every medical test?

Medlife Crisis

“An under 3-minute video by a funny and informative doctor explaining this”

2 HN recommenders · 2019–2024

commentary#2852

Naive empiricism, terrorism & Ebola.

N N Taleb's Probability Questions

“Watch this to understand that we're talking about two different distributions”

2 HN recommenders · 2017–2021

explainer#3062

Math Magic

Vsauce

“Vsauce has a fantastic animation of this too”

2 HN recommenders · 2016–2024

explainer#3089

The Bayesian Trap

Veritasium

“what is described as the "Bayesian trap", explained by the youtuber Veritasium”

2 HN recommenders · 2017–2024

talk#3192

AI Ethics, Impossibility Theorems and Tradeoffs - Chris Stucchio | Crunch 2018

CraftHub Events

“it's impossible to simultaneously treat everyone the same way, to have a useful model, and to have uniformly distributed 'bias'-free outcomes.”

2 HN recommenders · 2019–2021

explainer#3256

How We Should Vote (Range Voting)

Undefined Behavior

“The following video covers 'Range Voting' in relation to Arrow's Theorem”

3 HN recommenders · 2017–2019

lecture#3436

Clutching at Random Straws, Matt Parker | LMS Popular Lectures 2010

London Mathematical Society

“gave a very informative and entertaining lecture in 2010”

2 HN recommenders · 2017–2024

explainer#3523

Simulating alternate voting systems

Primer

“There are mathematical reasons for FPTP to result in two party systems. [0] explains it pretty well.”

2 HN recommenders · 2020–2026

talk#3719

The mathematics of love | Hannah Fry

TED

“Her ted talk about the math of love is so great.”

1 HN recommenders · 2021–2026

explainer#3769

The Lava Lamps That Help Keep The Internet Secure

Tom Scott

“There's a good Tom Scott video on this too.”

1 HN recommenders · 2017–2024

explainer#3844

Darts in Higher Dimensions (with 3blue1brown) - Numberphile

Numberphile

“There's a nice video about this from Numberphile and 3blue1brown”

1 HN recommenders · 2021–2023

explainer#3885

The Unbeatable Game from the 60s: Dr NIM

Stand-up Maths

“Here's a video on the subject from Matt Parker @ Standup Maths.”

1 HN recommenders · 2016–2023

explainer#4027

Crowd Wisdom Principles

Hypermind

“A shorter explanation”

1 HN recommenders · 2023–2025

explainer#4074

The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything

Veritasium

“this excellent Veritasium video about Markov and his chains”

1 HN recommenders · 2025

talk#4090

rand() Considered Harmful

aghuttun

“recommended by Stephan T. Lavavej, maintainer of Visual Studio's C++ Standard Library, in his "rand() Considered Harmful" talk”

1 HN recommenders · 2019–2025

talk#4195

Antifragille: Things That Gain from Disorder | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Talks at Google

Talks at Google

“I think Nassim Taleb should have deserved it, for actually "predicting" the crises.”

1 HN recommenders · 2013–2023

explainer#4504

BBC - The Code - The Wisdom of the Crowd

timb6

“start at 2:00 if TLDW”

1 HN recommenders · 2013–2016

explainer#4572

Bertrand's Paradox (with 3blue1brown) - Numberphile

Numberphile

“there's a Numberphile / 3B1B video about the pitfalls of plotting randomness in a circle”

1 HN recommenders · 2022–2024