I hadn't read this before, but I think I have a new guidepost for innovation: real tech flattens the power law for everyone, whereas phantom tech amplifies the power law.
I think you’re drawing the exact wrong conclusion from the article? Increased access to choice amplifies the effect of the power law.
From the article:
> Now, thanks to a series of breakthroughs in network theory by researchers like Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Duncan Watts, and Bernardo Huberman among others, breakthroughs being described in books like Linked, Six Degrees, and The Laws of the Web, we know that power law distributions tend to arise in social systems where many people express their preferences among many options. We also know that as the number of options rise, the curve becomes more extreme. This is a counter-intuitive finding - most of us would expect a rising number of choices to flatten the curve, but in fact, increasing the size of the system increases the gap between the #1 spot and the median spot.
Unless your real tech equates to censorship or control or something, I am not sure how it would help reduce power law effects?
