What is the Lindy effect? flashcard The Lindy effect (also known as Lindy’s Law) is a theorized phenomenon by which the future life expectancy of some non-perishable things, like a technology or an idea, is proportional to their current age. Thus, the Lindy effect proposes the longer a period something has survived to exist or be used in the present, it is also likely to have a longer remaining life expectancy. Longevity implies a resistance to change, obsolescence or competition and greater odds of continued existence into the future.
Reference notes
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in his book, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, defines it for non-perishable items (things like information, intellectual production, etc.) as so:
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“If a book has been in print for forty years, I can expect it to be in print for another forty years. But, and that is the main difference, if it survives another decade, then it will be expected to be in print another fifty years. This, simply, as a rule, tells you why things that have been around for a long time are not ‘aging’ like persons, but ‘aging’ in reverse. Every year that passes without extinction doubles the additional life expectancy. This is an indicator of some robustness. The robustness of an item is proportional to its life!” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in his book, Antifragile
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“A good book gets better at the second reading. A great book at the third. Any book not worth rereading isn’t worth reading.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb reading quote “These days, I find myself rereading as much (or more) as I do reading. A tweet from @illacertus said, ‘I don’t want to read everything. I just want to read the 100 great books over and over again.’ I think there’s a lot to that idea. It’s really more about identifying the great books for you because different books speak to different people. Then, you can really absorb those.” — Naval Ravikant reading quote