This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map) on HackerTube: recommended by 4 Hacker News commenters across 4 separate months, 2020–2023.
explainer · evergreen
A Veritasium video on the logistic map, showing how a simple population equation leads to chaos and bifurcation. It connects the idea to convection, neuron firing and the Mandelbrot set, with interactive animations.
HN commenters call it a favourite Veritasium video, praised for how a simple equation reveals surprisingly complex patterns.
“But this is the one I think people on HN need to watch most”
6 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
Here’s a rabbit hole to go down on that theme - ▶ this video That’s my second favorite YouTube video. I love how it reveals some universal primitives are really complicated. The pattern in the video is as fundamental to the universe as circles are. Imagine how many other mind-boggling structures are ubiquitous but just outside our understanding.
in “Why 10B snow crabs starved to death in the Bering Sea” · View on HN
Have you ever seen the Veritasium video on where fractals actually come from in 3D? If not, and since you already thought fractals were fascinating, hold on to your hat. ▶ this video
in “The 40th anniversary edition of Codex Seraphinianus” · View on HN
Did you see his one about the 3D landscape underlying the Mandelbrot set? I’ll cut him endless slack after that mindsplosion. ▶ this video
in “How Wrong Is Veritasium? A Lamp and Power Line Story [video]” · View on HN
Absolutely. His "gravity is not a force" video led me through a whole range of emotions from "this is ridiculous" to "actually..." to "holy crap, I've been wrong about this my entire life". In terms of sheer brain-breaking... this is my favourite: ▶ this video But this is the one I think people on HN need to watch most [link]
in “The 3x+1 Problem [video]” · View on HN
The original conversation happened almost 2 centuries ago I think (1830's). But sure! I think we throw away the baby with the bathwater when we say "Malthus was wrong". I think it's better to say "Malthus inspired the beginning of an awesome idea". Malthus' original idea was where he plotted population growth and food production in the same graph. When the 2 lines crossed, that's bad. That's obviously not very realistic, but actually he had the gist of it; it just needed a bit of refinement. Not much later, another Belgian by the name of Verhulst did indeed improve on Malthus' model. He came up with a formula where at first the population grows exponentially; and then later it slows down before it reaches the limit (carrying-capacity). In Verhulst's model, you don't have a catastrophic line-crossing. At that point, you basically have an actual Minimal Viable Product that you can use to predict and think about real-world population dynamics, and a whole lot more besides. Over the last two centuries people have built a lot of discoveries on top of that. This Veritasium video is about one small (but awesome) bit of that: ▶ this video It's a good thing not everyone thought Malthus was (completely) wrong!
in “Misunderstanding Malthus’ mistake” · View on HN
Thanks for making that video emphasizing the idea of resonance and commercial design -- as well as social change. Parts of the video on resonance reminds me of this one: "This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)" ▶ this video Some other parts on design remind me of videos by Charles and Ray Eames. You might want to consider adding Dialogue Mapping using IBIS to your design process if you have not already? [link]
in “You're enlightened – now what?” · View on HN