#013: Coin Tosses Aren't Random, The 14 Ways of Playing Tic Tac Toe, Positive-Sum Product Theory

Hi All!

We are pleased to welcome you to this week's edition of Undiscovered, a newsletter with exclusive resources and insights expanding from the material found on our main site - becketu.com.

This edition is helped in part by the support of Boot.dev. Be sure to check them out in the P.S. for a special signup offer and more information. Let's jump into this week's finds:

All 14 Exact Ways to Play Tic Tac Toe

I was amazed when I saw this video accumulate over 2.2 million views in the first 8 days of its release on YouTube. When I watched it I understood why - no one in history has gone to such lengths to study the game of Tic Tac Toe. It involves lots of math, a custom Python script, and harmonic atonements made from the (very) smart music PhD Marc Evanstein.

It's a borderline absurd watch. It will make your brain hurt. And by the end of it, you'll be asking yourself, 'What just happened?'

Learn How Everything is Made

When is the last time you stopped to ask yourself how everything around you is made? I recently found the site, 'How Products Are Made', and it might be one of the best-kept secrets on the internet.

From daily household items to complicated electronic machinery, this site shows the background, manufacturing process, illustrations, by-products generated, future developments and more of some the coolest products in the world.

Is a coin toss as random as we believe?

The next time someone offers to settle things over a coin toss, be weary of which side the flip starts from. Scientists recently discovered that coin tosses may not be as 'random' as we believe they are.

In this article from Scientific American, you can read about the physics and recent studies performed that discovered a 1% bias in coin toss flips. It's a fascinating piece that will make you think twice before you settle things in this '50-50' method.

Zero-Sum vs. Positive-Sum Product Theory

"Would you rather try to build the next YouTube or the next big YouTube channel?" This is the question that is posed at the end of the brilliant article, Zero-Sum vs. Positive-Sum Product Theory by Anu Atluru and Bharat Kilaru. In the article, the writers explore terms, examples, and the framework of what it means to be a 'positive-sum' product.

This is extremely helpful for people who are curious about what kind of product they might want to build in the future and the challenges that go into it. Best of all, it's a quick five minute read.

Quote I'm Pondering This Week

Naval is a big inspiration for the subjects we feature on our main site. He is known for regularly dropping wisdom on Twitter, and this is one recent quote I have been revisiting. The next time you are faced with a big decision, take some time to think about your understanding around it too.

Naval @naval You’re always making the best choice based on your current understanding. Don’t try to change the choice - change the understanding. 11:19 PM • Nov 29, 2023 2882 Retweets 14511 Likes Read 231 replies

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Always wishing you the best,

J.B.