The Long Tail of idiocy and masturbation

From The Economist this week, an article on the legacy of Larry Summers that includes this novel application of the theory:

"...Mr Summers may have been right. In most intellectual areas, such as vocabulary and verbal reasoning, the differences between men and women are statistically insignificant. But the long tail of mathematical genius does tend to be male, along with higher rates of idiocy and masturbation."

Thanks to Ian Murdock for the spot

Comments

[csven]

Wait sec. He may be on to something. I've notced that the mor I tipe da mor stupedr an hornyr i git untl der a'nt mh lft t rd n a jl lka eci lacll 1 + 1 = 2 .... therefore T2 / R3 = (4 * pi2) / (G * MSun )

[RT]

I'm sure you know this, but the quote isn't a novel application, it's a trendy misunderstanding. The sentence itself describes a normal distribution of men with (possibly) the same mean as women, but a larger standard deviation. The long tail, I had thought, was a different type of distribution, as that little graphic at the top left of the page indicates. I know it's cool to see the phrase spread, but does it have to spread to the point of confusion and meaninglessness?

[Chris Anderson]

RT,

Yes, I know. But it was too good to pass up. Of course Gaussian (normal) distributions have tails, too, they're just not "heavy tailed" like the powerlaw that is the basis of the Long Tail work. I think The Economist was just having a bit of fun.

Chris

[macdavy]

NEW ABOARD. jUST BOUGHT BOOK.

[Nigel Pond]

At first I was stunned that someone could put that in writing - but then I realised he was right!

[pda accessories]

Well i read this post and it seems to be an interesting post to comment. Anyways i would like to know more on this article...