This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters call it a favourite Veritasium video, praised for how a simple equation reveals surprisingly complex patterns.
What it is
A Veritasium video on the logistic map, showing how a simple population equation leads to chaos and bifurcation. It connects the idea to convection, neuron firing and the Mandelbrot set, with interactive animations.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2020 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec cgrealy · 2021-08 · on “The 3x+1 Problem [video]”
Absolutely. His "gravity is not a force" video led me through a whole range of emotions from "this is ridiculous" to "actually..." to "holy crap, I've been wrong about this my entire life". In terms of sheer brain-breaking... this is my favourite: [this video] But this is the one I think people on HN need to watch most [LINK]
Strong rec Kaibeezy · 2021-12 · on “The 40th anniversary edition of Codex Seraphinianus”
Have you ever seen the Veritasium video on where fractals actually come from in 3D? If not, and since you already thought fractals were fascinating, hold on to your hat. [this video]
Strong rec Kaibeezy · 2021-12 · on “How Wrong Is Veritasium? A Lamp and Power Line Story [video]”
Did you see his one about the 3D landscape underlying the Mandelbrot set? I’ll cut him endless slack after that mindsplosion. [this video]
Strong rec teaearlgraycold · 2023-10 · on “Why 10B snow crabs starved to death in the Bering Sea”
Here’s a rabbit hole to go down on that theme - [this video] That’s my second favorite YouTube video. I love how it reveals some universal primitives are really complicated. The pattern in the video is as fundamental to the universe as circles are. Imagine how many other mind-boggling structures are ubiquitous but just outside our understanding.
Recommends Kim_Bruning · 2021-03 · on “Misunderstanding Malthus’ mistake”
The original conversation happened almost 2 centuries ago I think (1830's). But sure! I think we throw away the baby with the bathwater when we say "Malthus was wrong". I think it's better to say "Malthus inspired the beginning of an awesome idea". Malthus' original idea was where he plotted population growth and food production in the same graph. When the 2 lines crossed, that's bad. That's obviously not very realistic, but actually he had the gist of it; it just needed a bit of refinement. Not much later, another Belgian by the name of Verhulst did indeed improve on Malthus' model. He came up with a formula where at first the population grows exponentially; and then later it slows down bef
Cites pdfernhout · 2020-09 · on “You're enlightened – now what?”
Thanks for making that video emphasizing the idea of resonance and commercial design -- as well as social change. Parts of the video on resonance reminds me of this one: "This equation will change how you see the world (the logistic map)" [this video] Some other parts on design remind me of videos by Charles and Ray Eames. You might want to consider adding Dialogue Mapping using IBIS to your design process if you have not already? [LINK]