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"Business owners rediscover the Pareto distribution! Film at 11!" I genuinely don't understand why this comes as a shock to people. 80% of the results (or reven

"Business owners rediscover the Pareto distribution! Film at 11!" I genuinely don't understand why this comes as a shock to people. 80% of the results (or revenue or productivity or whatever you're measuring where human output is the foundation of what you are measuring) will come from the top 20% of the producers. This is a normal, predictable phenomenon that continually blows the minds of people who think it's somehow a product of "systemic bias", or who think it should all be a relatively flat, uniform distribution. Here's the "paradox" that takes this phenomenon even further: the more choices people have, the less uniform the distribution is, and the more it favors the top producers.

bambax 4y ago
> where human output is the foundation of what you are measuring While Pareto was indeed a sociologist, the Pareto distribution can be observed in many, many natural phenomena. It's literally everywhere.
thorw73m 4y ago
> Here's the "paradox" that takes this phenomenon even further: the more choices people have, the less uniform the distribution is, and the more it favors the top producers. How do you explain the pre and post netflix years. More movies produced more people get rich post netflix. Fewer movies produced less people got more rich before netflix.
- prometheus76 4y ago
  To me it sounds like "more people get rich" is a line in the sand. There are more movies to choose from, but the top movies gross more now than they ever have and the "middle-performing" movies, relative to the others, make less than they did 40 years ago. If you draw a line and say "more movies make over 100 million in revenue now than before", that is a natural byproduct of there being more movies to pick from now, and more people watching movies now. Pareto distribution also explains wealth distribution and "income disparity". There are simply more people now, so the separation between the median and top 1% is going to be greater now than it ever has been. There's nothing political about this. It's a natural manifestation of a Pareto distribution, and as another commenter pointed out: this distribution shows up all over the place in nature.
- woojoo666 4y ago
  Your parent comment was talking about distributions, while you are talking absolute figures. For example, if we define rich as >1 mil, then lets say before netflix, 100 movie producers made exactly 1 mil. Then after netflix, 5 movie producers made 1 bil while 150 made 1 mil. Still more people total, but the distribution is more uneven.
  - thorw73m 4y ago
    I see it now. "1.5" billion from 150 people contributes to making the distribution uniform where as 5 billion from 5 people is contributing to skewing the distribution. But is there a proof to that or it more of an observation.

bambax 4y ago

> where human output is the foundation of what you are measuring While Pareto was indeed a sociologist, the Pareto distribution can be observed in many, many natural phenomena. It's literally everywhere.

thorw73m 4y ago

> Here's the "paradox" that takes this phenomenon even further: the more choices people have, the less uniform the distribution is, and the more it favors the top producers. How do you explain the pre and post netflix years. More movies produced more people get rich post netflix. Fewer movies produced less people got more rich before netflix.

prometheus76 4y ago
To me it sounds like "more people get rich" is a line in the sand. There are more movies to choose from, but the top movies gross more now than they ever have and the "middle-performing" movies, relative to the others, make less than they did 40 years ago. If you draw a line and say "more movies make over 100 million in revenue now than before", that is a natural byproduct of there being more movies to pick from now, and more people watching movies now. Pareto distribution also explains wealth distribution and "income disparity". There are simply more people now, so the separation between the median and top 1% is going to be greater now than it ever has been. There's nothing political about this. It's a natural manifestation of a Pareto distribution, and as another commenter pointed out: this distribution shows up all over the place in nature.
woojoo666 4y ago
Your parent comment was talking about distributions, while you are talking absolute figures. For example, if we define rich as >1 mil, then lets say before netflix, 100 movie producers made exactly 1 mil. Then after netflix, 5 movie producers made 1 bil while 150 made 1 mil. Still more people total, but the distribution is more uneven.
- thorw73m 4y ago
  I see it now. "1.5" billion from 150 people contributes to making the distribution uniform where as 5 billion from 5 people is contributing to skewing the distribution. But is there a proof to that or it more of an observation.