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The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything

Veritasium1 HN recommenders · 2025–2025
13.1M views · explainer · evergreen · Uploaded 2025-07-25

A Veritasium video on how a feud between Russian mathematicians led to Markov chains and the modern prediction algorithms built on them. It covers the history and the math behind them.

HN recommends it as an excellent, detailed history of Markov chains, often in threads on Markov models and language models.

Probability & game theoryRecreational & visual math

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3 comments from Hacker News

@satvikpendem2025 · in “Problem solving using Markov chains (2007) [pdf]”

I assume OP watched this excellent Veritasium video about Markov and his chains [0] and posted this article which was referenced in that video. [0] [VIDEO]

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@sceadu2025 · in “Ask HN: What trick of the trade took you too long to learn?”

not sure if it counts as a list of case studies, but a relevant and recent video nonetheless [VIDEO] also in general bayesian statistics random medium article: [LINK]

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@jcynix2025 · in “Markov chains are the original language models”

Ah, yes, Markov chains. A long time agoMark V. Shaney [LINK] was designed by Rob Pike and posted on Usenet. And Veritasium's video "The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything" talks in detail about the history of Markov chains: [VIDEO]

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