THE VIDEO SHELF · bayes' rule
The medical test paradox, and redesigning Bayes' rule
3Blue1Brown explains why positive results on accurate medical tests are often false positives, and reframes Bayes' rule using likelihood ratios (Bayes factors) to update odds. It uses visual examples to make the reasoning intuitive.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN's go-to link whenever Bayesian reasoning, base rates or imperfect tests come up.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- 3Blue1Brown
- Topic
- bayes' rule
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- intro
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 4
- HN mentions in dataset
- 7
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2020–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
I agree that this is definitely a trend, so I feel like highlighting a great example of educational content that is very dense, concise, and with just a touch of whimsy: 3Blue1Brown on Youtube[0]. He has been doing math education videos on YouTube for years. …
drewmate on Hacker News · 2020-12
In 1937 film explains how a car differential worksAlmost no tests in existence can confirm or deny particular infection. Think of them (and symptoms) more as odds updater. If you have 20 minutes to spare this video [0] by 3 Blue 1 Brown is a brilliant introduction to the concept. [0] [VIDEO]
kilotaras on Hacker News · 2021-01
In U.S. to require negative Covid-19 tests for international air passengers3Blue1Brown explains it well. [VIDEO] If the population who do _not_ actually have serious cancer is orders of magnitudes larger than those who do then there will be far more people in the false positive group than the true positive group and thus the vast …
andersrs on Hacker News · 2024-01
In The cancer that some doctors don't want to call cancer
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.