Citation
Power laws, Pareto distributions and Zipf's law
TL;DR
Power laws appear across diverse systems
Accessible introduction to power laws across natural and social systems. Discusses mechanisms generating power law distributions including preferential attachment, self-organized criticality, and optimization processes.
Excellent entry point for practitioners seeking to understand power law fundamentals without heavy mathematical formalism.
Key Findings from Newman (2005)
- Power laws appear across diverse systems
- Multiple mechanisms can generate power laws
- Distinction between distribution and scaling relationships
- Practical guidance for identification