frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: What are some good unintuitive statistics problems?

2•ronbenton•1h ago
I am compiling some statistics problems that are interesting due to their unintuitive nature. some basic/well known examples are the monty hall problem and the birthday problem. What are some others I should add to my list? thank you!

Comments

dpforesi•1h ago
This isn't a "statistics" problem exactly, but rather a data science problem, but... Personality tests are usually framed as psychological instruments, but the core problem is statistical. They assume responses are noisy observations of a stable latent variable, when in practice they’re samples from a context-dependent decision process. Respondents condition on incentives, infer what’s being rewarded, and optimize accordingly, so the data-generating process shifts with each setting. From a statistical perspective this breaks identifiability: multiple latent personalities can produce the same observed responses, and the same personality can produce different responses under different incentive structures. Because those incentives are unobserved or only weakly observed, the model is fundamentally misspecified. More samples don’t converge on truth; they converge on a biased estimate of a strategic equilibrium rather than the latent trait itself.

On paper, I'm a real collaborator, because that is what I think the test should reveal about me. In reality, I just don't wanna deal with collaboration and I'd rather work alone. Can this be measured? Probably not, but it does present an odd paradox for data scientists to solve.

ben_w•49m ago
Here's one I did at A-level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_paradox_(probability)

Simplicity Matters

https://cosmastech.com/2026/01/16/simplicity-matters.html
1•ulrischa•1m ago•0 comments

Against Imaginary Friends: Digital Companions No Solution to Social Isolation

https://cacm.acm.org/research/against-imaginary-friends-why-digital-companions-are-no-solution-to...
1•pseudolus•2m ago•0 comments

2025: The Year of the Return of the Ada Programming Language?

https://thenewstack.io/2025-the-year-of-the-return-of-the-ada-programming-language/
2•gneuromante•7m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Modulo – homeschooling resources, community and expert support

https://joinmodulo.com/
2•actfrench•10m ago•1 comments

The Bacchae of Euripedes, Translated by William Arrowsmith [pdf]

https://classics.domains.skidmore.edu/lit-campus-only/primary/translations/EuripidesBac.pdf
1•octed•11m ago•0 comments

What If We Took Message-Passing Seriously?

https://worksonmymachine.ai/p/what-if-we-took-message-passing-seriously
1•Stwerner•18m ago•0 comments

Gmail Spam Detection Down

https://www.google.com/appsstatus/dashboard/incidents/NNnDkY9CJ36annsfytjQ?hl=en
11•Abimelex•19m ago•2 comments

Google AI Overviews cites YouTube more than any medical website

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jan/24/google-ai-overviews-youtube-medical-citations-...
2•01-_-•19m ago•0 comments

After 50, Reinvention Is No Longer an Exception. It's Becoming a Pattern

https://comuniq.xyz/post?t=745
2•01-_-•22m ago•0 comments

When interfaces decide how we think [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Pj7W0xl_c
2•beshrkayali•22m ago•0 comments

Rossum's Universal Robots

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.
1•derbOac•22m ago•0 comments

Tension between Mark Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, per company's new structure

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/all-is-not-well-between-meta-ceo-mark-zu...
1•randycupertino•23m ago•2 comments

Welcome to Town Al-Gasr

http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2026/01/welcome-to-town-al-gasr.html
1•zdw•25m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Supply chain security for everything that isn't a container

https://blob.meigma.dev/
1•sepositus•26m ago•0 comments

Wave Cycloidal Rotor: Environmental Performance and Improvement Pathways

https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1312/14/1/41
1•PaulHoule•27m ago•0 comments

Show HN: PhantomLoop – Real-time BCI decoder visualization in the browser

https://phantomloop.elabbassi.com
1•yelabbassi•27m ago•1 comments

AI Agents Are Poised to Hit a Mathematical Wall, Study Finds

https://gizmodo.com/ai-agents-are-poised-to-hit-a-mathematical-wall-study-finds-2000713493
2•alangibson•29m ago•0 comments

Gladys West, mathematician whose work paved the way for GPS, dies at 95

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5685027/gladys-west-gps-mathematician
2•andsoitis•29m ago•0 comments

Six Types of Framing Structures

https://ettagraceauthor.com/2021/10/15/6-types-of-framing-structures/
1•andsoitis•31m ago•0 comments

Snail Tales

https://snailtales.surge.sh/
1•Anniediamond•33m ago•1 comments

The rise of Chinese memory [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzfhhAfxK-A
1•elestor•35m ago•0 comments

Pondpilot: A lightweight local first SQL analytics tool using DuckDB

https://github.com/pondpilot/pondpilot
2•tanelpoder•35m ago•0 comments

A Screen Time Limiting App That Works

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/appblock-app-usage-hard-stop/id6757147703
1•dev_at•35m ago•1 comments

Fear Is More Dangerous Than Evil [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ3-_olGe2s&list=PLcs1ZorNr2uTGPZPZnBa408qLVHjbMTzT&index=4
1•eamag•36m ago•0 comments

Wix plans to let AI write most code, leaving engineers to redefine their role

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/r1u0ydglzg
3•myth_drannon•36m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: I am a surgeon/doctor. What ai literature/courses would you recommend?

2•emmabruns•39m ago•2 comments

Launch of "Russian Starlink" Postponed Due to Satellite Production Failure

https://militarnyi.com/en/news/launch-of-russian-starlink-postponed-due-to-satellite-production-f...
3•giuliomagnifico•39m ago•0 comments

git-pkgs: A Git subcommand that indexes dependency changes into a database

https://git-pkgs.dev/
1•zdw•41m ago•0 comments

Thucydides's Trap Case File

https://www.belfercenter.org/programs/thucydidess-trap/thucydidess-trap-case-file
1•doener•42m ago•0 comments

Show HN: PromptUI – AI kept giving me the same boring UI. So I fixed it

https://www.promptui.xyz/
1•exos-xyz•45m ago•0 comments