Hockey Stick distribution

[Inst]

Lest you think poor The New Yorker is a magazine that only bashes popular movies... here's an article from the magazine by Malcolm Gladwell, where he describes Hockey Stick (Power-Law) distributions and its implications concerning public policy.

http://www.gladwell.com/2006/2006_02_13_a_murray.html

[Retroboy]

Inst, you wanna summarize that horrendously long article and try to turn it into something that's actually discussable? The first five paragraphs are about some homeless dude and have nothing to do with your rather unclear first post.

-- Retro

[Inst]

Many social problems are caused by a power-law distribution problem, where a small minority create the majority of offenses. These social problems cannot be tackled as though it had a bell-curve distribution where the entire population is treated, but rather by focusing on the problem minority.

The homeless are the examples in the article. It believes that most of the homelessness in American cities is caused by a minority, that the vast majority of homeless people are highly temporary and get on with their lives after a short stay in homeless shelters. The exceptions however, are in a way, addicted to the lifestyle of being homeless.

[naradaman]

It's hard finding a good hockey stick in my area.

[Moe]

And the point of this is....?

[Tiberius Nero]

Perhaps I am lazy but I could not get past the first 10 or so paragraphs of the article, and I still have no clue what this all is about :/
P.S. What is the hockey stick business?

[SquidDNA]

Inst, did the New Yorker hire you or something?

Nobody is going to read that article just to discuss concepts they're not familiar with anyway. Read Retro's sticky before you start another topic.