The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as an excellent, detailed history of Markov chains, often in threads on Markov models and language models.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2025 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends satvikpendem · 2025-07 · on “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] [this video]
Cites sceadu · 2025-08 · on “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 [this video] also in general bayesian statistics random medium article: [LINK]
Cites jcynix · 2025-09 · on “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: [this video]