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Randomness is Random - Numberphile

Randomness is Random - Numberphile on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2019–2022.

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Numberphile with Simon Pampena on how humans misunderstand randomness, including coin-flip sequences, run lengths and the gambler's fallacy.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended as an accessible demonstration that people are bad at producing or judging random sequences.

people recommended it
4
separate months
4
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2019–2022
“Here's a great video demonstrating how people tend to misunderstand randomness”
— codesushi42, Jun 2019, in “Interview on ”Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way””

What HN commenters said

4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

throwamonFeb 2022Recommends

This may indirectly answer your question: ▶ this video TLDW: We don't pick numbers at random. At all. We're so bad at it that you can make money off this fact.

in “Some neurons are active when adding, others when subtracting” · View on HN

wruzaSep 2019Recommends

Oh, I remember good old fallout 1-2 when you have 42% hit chance but still miss 7 times in a row. There is also a good Numberphile video on what we think random really is (it is not) ▶ this video

in “A New Algorithm for Controlled Randomness” · View on HN

codesushi42Jun 2019Recommends

I would argue that the problem with frequentist statistics is that it aligns with humans' flawed intuition of how randomness works. People are inherently obsessed with finding patterns to support their hypotheses. The problem is that what we perceive as random and extremely unlikely events are in fact much more probable than what we estimate from using Gaussian methods. And the frequentist approach helps to create this distortion by ignoring black swans. Here's a great video demonstrating how people tend to misunderstand randomness: ▶ this video

in “Interview on ”Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way”” · View on HN

reidacdcJan 2019Recommends

There is a very accessible "numberphile" video which I think is closely related to this, about playing the odds on predicting elements of a nominally-random coin-flip sequence using the expected run length. ▶ this video

in “Perceptions of Randomness: Why Three Heads Are Better Than Four (2009) [pdf]” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Probability & game theoryRecreational & visual mathcoin flipsgambler's fallacyprobabilitynumberphilehuman bias