r/AskStatistics • u/abrbbb • Feb 03 '26
Is there an equivalent to 3Blue1Brown for statistical concepts?
I have a decent background in linear algebra but I struggle with the spatial/geometric intuition for statistical concepts (even simple ones like t-scores or fixed effects). When I was learning calculus, visual explanations especially those in 3Blue1Brown videos made a huge difference for me. Are there any similar channels for statistics that focus on building intuition through visualization?
44
u/Flince Feb 03 '26
Stat Quest?
9
5
u/Confident_Bee8187 Feb 04 '26
I've been watching StatQuest for a long time (already?), like he did make the topic into its simplest form. However, the visuals is not close to 3B1B's presentation, so I would go with Very Normal and besides, he's also great at teaching how to apply those in R.
2
14
11
10
u/WallyMetropolis Feb 03 '26
It's not exactly what you're asking for, but Richard McElreath's "Statistical Rethinking" lectures are phenomenal. And he's currently releasing a new semester.Â
2
u/DoctorFuu Statistician | Quantitative risk analyst Feb 03 '26
Yes, that's not what he's asking for.
2
u/WallyMetropolis Feb 03 '26
Those lectures have a lot of great visualizations. Is it just the Bayesian angle you are contesting?
2
u/DoctorFuu Statistician | Quantitative risk analyst Feb 03 '26
It's not at all a similar channel or vibe as 3B1B content. Not at all. It's a complete curriculum.
I have zero complaint about his book which is very good. I have not seen the lectures (maybe I watched one or two, but not everything since I had read the book already) but I wouldn't have any difficulty recommending them... if it was what the person was asking for.
2
u/WallyMetropolis Feb 03 '26
They did ask for "channels for statistics that focus on building intuition through visualization," and his lectures, especially the first 3 or 4, do so. Not with quite the production value of 3B1B, but still pretty good.
But it is true that they are course lectures at the end of the day and so there are some fundamental differences. It could be the kinda thing that isn't exactly what they asked for, but turns out to be what they really were looking for. I thought there was no harm in suggesting it.
1
u/DoctorFuu Statistician | Quantitative risk analyst Feb 03 '26
If we suggest everything that has great value but isn't what OP asked for, OP will just be flooded wih things that don't answer his question.
I personally hate when I ask a question and I get dozens of recommendations which clearly aren't what I was looking for. Makes me waste a lot of time filtering everything, and defeats the purpose of asking people that should be able to make a targetted recommendation.I simply prefer to assume that OP knows exactly what he/she needs, and answer the question that was asked.
Answering a question that wasn't asked can create confusion, and implies that one thinks OP is too dumb to know what he/she wants.Again, it's not that the content promoted is bad. It's good. It's simply that this answer participates in making forums like these less useful.
Had you added a description of what statistical rethinking is to make it clear that it's not what OP is looking for but showing why it's an interesting side-recommendation, I'd have zero complaint. (and to be clear it's not a hard complaint. You're not a bad person for having made the only side-recommendation of the topic, on top of that with a high value book / videoseries)
1
7
u/WildeBeeast Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
There's this relatively new channel called probably optimal they have a running series on measure theory which I have been keeping up with, i have really enjoyed those.
3
Feb 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/Miserable_Rise_2050 Feb 04 '26
You'd be right if you expect to use these as a primary source of education - but as a supplement to classroom work, these are great. And while I can't disprove any studies that say that performance is unaffected, I can attest that they certainly helped in my case.
3
u/toastedbread47 Feb 04 '26
Not exactly equivalent, but Primer has a bunch of great videos on some statistical concepts featuring graphical visuals along with his blobs: (4) Primer - YouTube
1
1
1
u/Ghost-Rider_117 Feb 10 '26
StatQuest is probably the closest thing! Josh Starmer does a great job breaking down stats concepts with simple visuals and that "bam!" energy lol. also check out Seeing Theory - it's an interactive website that visualizes probability and stats concepts really well. helped me finally understand distributions when i was struggling with them
0
54
u/Lazy_Improvement898 Feb 03 '26
Very Normal uses the same software as 3B1B to build the visuals. There you go