Statistics Slam Dunk

15 The Lindy effect

This chapter covers

• Examining the 80-20 rule
• Visualizing the 80-20 rule with Pareto charts
• Creating violin plots
• Creating paired histograms

The Lindy effect, or Lindy’s Law, suggests that nonperishable items, such as a book in print or a business, have life expectancies equal to their current age. For instance, if The Great Gatsby has been in print for 100 years, we can expect it to remain in print for another 100 years. Basically, the longer something has been in existence, the longer it’s likely to continue existing. The concept is named after a former delicatessen in New York City named Lindy’s that nonetheless remained open for nearly a century. The Lindy effect doesn’t apply to human beings, fruit, or other perishable ...