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

London Mathematical Society · lecture · Watch on YouTube

Recreational & visual mathProbability & game theoryData science & statistics

What it is

Matt Parker's LMS popular lecture on how seemingly incredible results can be meaningless random patterns. He ranges from ancient Woolworths civilisations to shoelaces and DNA.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Used to illustrate that humans pattern-match and find spurious patterns in enough data points.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2017, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “he does a fun demonstration of how perception is a process of actively patternmatching for what we expect”

    Fun demonstration that perception actively pattern-matches expectations

    Tistron, 2017-05 · Recommendation · in “FBI Investigation: “Louie Louie”, The Song (1964)”

  2. “gave a very informative and entertaining lecture in 2010”

    Informative, entertaining lecture on finding spurious patterns in enough data points.

    OnACoffeeBreak, 2024-06 · Recommendation · in “Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?”

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

Topics: matt parker, randomness, pattern matching, statistics, recreational maths

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