Top all-time · #2173
Tanya Khovanova
Personal blog · blog.tanyakhovanova.commathgames
Tanya Khovanova's personal blog at blog.tanyakhovanova.com covers math and games. Since 2009, 34 different Hacker News readers have linked it 54 times, most often “Should You Date a Mathematician?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-21, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (23) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Tanya Khovanova's blog for maths explanations, such as the Tuesday boy problem, divisibility by 7 and the four colour theorem, plus a post on IQ and Mensa.
- Recommended for · 5 comments
- Called easier to read on the Tuesday boy problem, 'much better' on divisibility by 7, and 'mind-blowing' results on four colour.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 23 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Should You Date a Mathematician?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-04-24
- A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)2 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2015-07-29
- Foams Made Out of Felt2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-12-01
- /?p=2772 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-04-10
- /?p=2212 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-11-29
- Hiring the Smartest People in the World2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-05-02
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-07-13
What Hacker News says?
https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2008/08/why-are-manhole-cove...
Comment linking /2008/08/why-are-manhole-covers-square/
on “Learning to program is getting harder”Submitted My IQ as a story · 392 points
HN discussionhttp://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/ http://blog.kenperlin.com/ http://blog.vixra.org/ http://www.nature.com/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/science/publicati... http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/ http://lwn.net/ http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/transcriptions.... http://c2.com/cgi/wiki if you're into seeing how the Elders thought about computing http://…
Comment linking /
on “What are the most intellectually stimulating websites you know of?”Submitted Divisibility by 7 is a Walk on a Graph (2009) as a story · 335 points
HN discussionAFTER EDIT: Thanks to all who have replied for the interesting comments. I discovered this link while digesting replies I received on three different email lists to a request to name experts on mathematically precocious young people. (That was for work.) Tanya Khovanova, the author of the blog post submitted here, was one name suggested to me as an expert on precocious mathematics learners. When I saw her personal w…
Comment linking /?p=319
on “My IQ”Submitted The Dying Art of Mental Math Tricks as a story · 198 points
HN discussionI loved the puzzle books, even though I wasn't very good at the puzzles. The titbit about his wife is this story ( https://magazine.uchicago.edu/9506/June95BOBProfiles.html , NYT left out the actual puzzle) > Smullyan admits the following puzzle might have come in handy had he designed it before meeting his wife. > "I'll make a statement. If the statement is true, you give me your autograph. It doesn't have to be on…
Comment linking /2010/05/raymond-smullyans-magic-trick/
on “Raymond Smullyan has died”Submitted A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011) as a story · 139 points
HN discussionFor a bit of an explanation, see David's follow-up blog post: http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2010/08/divisibility-by-7-is-...
Comment linking /2010/08/divisibility-by-7-is-a-walk-on-a-graph-ii-2/
on “Divisibility by 7 is a Walk on a Graph (2009)”Submitted Divisibility by 7 is a Walk on a Graph - how does it work? as a story · 63 points
HN discussionTanya Khovanova on IQ and MENSA: https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2008/12/my-iq/
Comment linking /2008/12/my-iq/
on “IQ is largely a pseudoscientific swindle”Submitted The odd one out - inspired by IQ tests as a story · 57 points
HN discussionHere's somebody with intelligence clearly above average making the same point: https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2008/12/my-iq/
Comment linking /2008/12/my-iq/
on “IQ is largely a pseudoscientific swindle”Submitted Hiring the Smartest People in the World as a story · 50 points
HN discussionMind-blowing result from a different attempt to prove four color theorem https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2024/11/foams-made-out-of-fe...
Comment linking /2024/11/foams-made-out-of-felt/
on “The cultural divide between mathematics and AI”Submitted Should you date a mathematician? as a story · 22 points
HN discussionFwiw fairly recently posted to HN was progress towards a more satisfying (read, likely mind-blowing) proof: https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2024/11/foams-made-out-of-fe... This is also nice because only pre-1600 tech involved
Comment linking /2024/11/foams-made-out-of-felt/
on “The cultural divide between mathematics and AI”Submitted Foams Made Out of Felt as a story · 19 points
HN discussionA similar example was highlighted on BB the other day, with an interesting twist about cognitive bind-spots leading to security holes: http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/?p=277 http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/04/nice_security_...
Comment linking /?p=277
on “A non-mathematical explanation of one way functions”Submitted A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionNever interviewed at Facebook but have been offered roles at similarly hard to get places. Though I am working at my own startup now, the absurdness of the interviewing process at majority of such places confounds me. In short, I can't cope up with them well without going through quite a few glassdoor type questions of that respective company. And partially it is because most interviewers already have a set of solut…
Comment linking /?p=402
on “Get that job at Facebook (2012)”Submitted The Battle I am Losing as a story · 5 points
HN discussionThis reminds me of an interesting puzzle about horsemen riding around a circular track: https://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2011/03/the-horsemen-sequenc...
Comment linking /2011/03/the-horsemen-sequences/
on “The lonely runner conjecture”Submitted A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI was curious as well and googled it ("counting stairs conway") and found this: http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/2011/06/a-nerds-way-to-walk-u... > His invention is simple. Your steps should be in a cycle: short, long, long. Long in this case means a double step. Thus, you will cover five stairs in one short-long-long cycle. In addition, you should always start the first cycle on the same foot. Suppose you start on th…
Comment linking /2011/06/a-nerds-way-to-walk-up-the-stairs/
on “John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician”Submitted Industry vs Academia as a story · 3 points
HN discussionReal link: http://blog.tanyakhovanova.com/?p=277
Comment linking /?p=277
on “Nice Security Mindset Example”Submitted A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionOkay. To respond to both of you - I have put this in programming just to check, and I think you are taking a different inference from the question than I am. Under your inference, the man wouldnt have mentioned anything unless he had at least one male child. (in which case you can say the GG scenario is gone, but GB BG and BB are equally probable) Under my inference, the man just told me the sex of one child at rand…
Comment linking /?p=221
on “Think you understand Monty Hall? Try the Tuesday boy problem.”Submitted A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011) as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
Linked by the same people?
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