4 ms·

> It’s just a simple numbers game: there are more obscure books than popular books, so there are more obscure good books than popular good books, so the more bo

by rytill 5y ago

> It’s just a simple numbers game: there are more obscure books than popular books, so there are more obscure good books than popular good books, so the more books you read the more likely your favorite is an obscure one. There is an unstated dubious assumption that popularity is independent from goodness here. Not that I disagree with the conclusion.

marcosdumay 5y ago
The assumption is that popularity is rarer than goodness.
deleted 5y ago
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tikhonj 5y ago
Popularity and quality don't have to be independent for this to be true—it's enough that they're not too heavily correlated, or at least not heavily correlated past some threshold. That does not seem dubious at all!