Power Laws and Believing in Yourself
This article dealt with power laws and how it goes hand and hand with success. The author explains many different examples of power laws in society. He explains that power laws are the reason why one souvenir stand is super crowded in a foreign country or why authors like J.K Rowling or Steven King are super popular. Power laws favor the rich and popular and separates the average from the more powerful. However, power laws do not apply to everything. Power laws don’t apply to the amount of goals scored in a soccer game or even casino odds. This connects to power laws we talked about in class.
The whole point of this article is to explain that in the face of power laws, one must not think the way society wants us to think. The author writes “The point, in the context of power laws, is that the self is NOT the key factor in future outcomes.” He explains how one must use other tactics in order to be successful other than believing in yourself. He uses the example that Schooling didn’t beat Phelps simply because Phelps stopped believing in himself. Another example he uses is McDonalds isn’t doing better than Burger King because their founders believed in themselves more than Burger King’s. In the face of power laws one must not believe they are super special that they have to make it out on top.
Article: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/opinion/alwyn-lau/article/power-laws-and-why-you-neednt-believe-in-yourself