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David Deutsch: A new way to explain explanation

TED · talk · Watch on YouTube

Scientific method & science communicationPhilosophy & ethics

What it is

Physicist David Deutsch's TED talk on why science took off, arguing that good explanations are those that are hard to vary. It contrasts scientific explanation with myth.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN points to it as a short, tight introduction to Deutsch's idea of hard-to-vary explanations.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 1 strong recommendations
  • first 2022, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “it's a very tight talk and you should start from the beginning”

    Tight talk on explanations versus explanationless hypotheses.

    thingification, 2023-06 · Strong recommendation · in “Annoying A/B testing mistakes every engineer should know”

  2. “The short TED lecture by him gives a deeper insight into his explanation of why good explanations”

    Short talk on why hard-to-vary explanations drive scientific progress.

    npalli, 2022-04 · Recommendation · in “Against Bayesianism – David Deutsch”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: david deutsch, good explanations, epistemology, scientific method, ted

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