Frank Hecker
@frankhecker
Frank Hecker
Many (most? almost all?) results (as ranked by some metric) are produced through a sequence of events whose effects multiply together. The log-normal distribution is the real “normal” distribution.
The creator economy and Log-normal is the new normal
This is my new obsession, which started with my analysis of Patreon earnings.
Against Compression
newcartographies.com
One of the better “contra AI” articles I’ve read. Interesting that it closes with a poem, because poetry is one of the better examples of intelligent compression around, along with metaphors. Possibly misquoting Randall Jarrell on Wallace Stevens more abstract poems: “It is G.E. Moore at the spinet”. An LLM can explain it to you, but it hits with more force if you’ve read Jarrell, Stevens, and Moore, and have ever listened to a spinet. (I can check 1, 2, and 4, but not 3.) Compression is most powerful when you have some idea of what’s being compressed.
Review of Math Academy, emphasizes need for conceptual understanding. A more useful review than Michael Pershan’s or Dan Meyer’s.
A bleak essay, but I have quibbles: for example, why wouldn’t super intelligent beings have art? (Incomprehensible art to humans, most likely, but still art.)
Who Reaps All the Superchats? A Large-Scale Analysis of Income Inequality in Virtual YouTuber Livestreaming
arxiv.org
The creator economy and Log-normal is the new normal
Another paper that may show log-normal distribution of earnings by “creators”.
What are some good sources of comprehensive data on possibly log-normal behavior in culture and entertainment? Maybe box-office figures?
Good overview of creator economy dynamics marred by uncritical acceptance of power-law distributions that are probably log-normal.
File under “probably log-normal”. See for example the deviation from straight log-lines in the graphs.
That one weird third variable problem nobody ever mentions: Conditioning on a collider
the100.ci