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Randomness is Random - Numberphile

Numberphile

4.7M subscribers • 28 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 4 people: 4 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2019 to 2022.
  • Presented by Simon Pampena

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

892K views7 years ago4 recommendations

Computer scienceMath for programmersAlgorithms

Simon Pampena explains how humans misunderstand randomness, exploring coin-flip sequences, run lengths, and the gambler's fallacy.

Featuring Simon Pampena... Check out Brilliant (and get 20% off their premium service): brilliant.org/numberphile (sponsor) More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓ More coin-related videos: bit.ly/coins_videos More videos with Simon Pampena: bit.ly/Pampena_Videos Simon on Twitter: twitter.com/mathemaniac Numberphile is supported by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI): bit.ly/MSRINumberphile We are also supported by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science. simonsfoundation.org/outreach/science-sandbox/ And support from Math For America - mathforamerica.org/ NUMBERPHILE Website: numberphile.com/ Numberphile on Facebook: facebook.com/numberphile Numberphile tweets: twitter.com/numberphile Subscribe: bit.ly/Numberphile_Sub Videos by Brady Haran Animation and editing in this video by Pete McPartlan Patreon: patreon.com/numberphile Numberphile T-Shirts: teespring.com/stores/numberphile Brady's videos subreddit: reddit.com/r/BradyHaran/ Brady's latest videos across all channels: bradyharanblog.com/ Sign up for (occasional) emails: eepurl.com/YdjL9

Why it's here

4 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an accessible explanation of how human intuition fails to correctly perceive true randomness.

reidacdcon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Perceptions of Randomness: Why Three Heads Are Better Than Four (2009) [pdf]”

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. link to this video
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codesushi42on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Interview on ”Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way””

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: link to this video
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wruzaon Hacker News • Recommends

On “A New Algorithm for Controlled Randomness”

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) link to this video
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throwamonon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Some neurons are active when adding, others when subtracting”

This may indirectly answer your question: link to 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.
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