On: So You Think You Have a Power Law

[fiatmoney]

This pattern annoys me to no end. People are quick to jump from a claim like "some users are more valuable than others" to "POWER LAW", and from there to folksy wisdom about an "80-20 rule".

[greattypo → fiatmoney]

I agree, both terms feel oddly specific to me when people throw them around casually, but the layman use is at least directionally correct.

Much more cringe inducing are all of the invented definitions of the Law of Large Numbers! (e.g. http://www.fastcompany.com/1825592/9-reasons-choose-corporat...).

[Fomite → greattypo]

Guh. I encountered this so much on an investment site that I wrote a blog post about the Law of Large Numbers because it was annoying me enough that I wanted to have a shorthand link. http://confounding.net/2012/03/12/thats-not-how-the-law-of-l...

I equally hated "Well, it means something different in this field." No it doesn't, it's math. That's the whole point.