In this incredibly geeky Numberphile video, Dr. Hannah Fry discusses various issues inherent in typical Secret Santa implementations. If you’re not familiar with Secret Santa, it’s a custom in which people within a group (say, an office) anonymously buy gifts for other members of the group. Fry says:
“I think there are two fundamental things that you need for a perfect Secret Santa. One, total anonymity. And two, everyone should have an equal probability of being selected by anybody else. … The normal way you do this—everybody writing their name down and picking it from a hat—fails on both counts.”
Where it gets interesting is her suggestion for how to make it work better. Tune in and geek out:
(Incidentally, the comments on this YouTube video are amusing. Lots of people discuss their own computer-based approaches for the same problem, while others take issue with Dr. Fry’s characterization of a Klein bottle as a poor choice for a gift.)
November 27, 2016 – 8:00pm