# Ask HN: Why 17?

> Source: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49713156>
> Published: 2026-09-15 14:33:15+00:00

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|  |  | [Ask HN: Why 17?](item?id=49713156) | 
|  |  | 3 points by [tonyvince7](user?id=tonyvince7)[18 minutes ago](item?id=49713156) \|[hide](hide?id=49713156&goto=item%3Fid%3D49713156) \|[past](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Ask%20HN%3A%20Why%2017%3F&type=story&dateRange=all&sort=byDate&storyText=false&prefix&page=0) \|[favorite](fave?id=49713156&auth=c7ba3b3b674239dcb267c1b02ff4b28d0c7b432f) \|[1 comment](item?id=49713156) | 
|  |  | If I ask an LLM to pick a number between 1 and 30, it always picks 17. Tried with multiple models. Why 17? |