First off, let me say that Wired editor, Chris Anderson is an excellent writer. He writes in a strong clear language, that is easy on the brain. That said, I’m gonna paraphrase him here, and recommend that you dig deep yourself, as The Long Tail practically reads itself.

So do you remember what the 1/x curve looks like? That’s essentially what the market dynamics look like if you were to plot a curve of sales on the Y axis and products on the X axis. High volume sellers on the left, represent a small fraction of the total sellers, but a large chunk of the sales in the traditional market. What Chris Anderson sheds light on here is that with the internet adding choices beyond what most retailers can carry, it is lengthening the sales of products to the consumer.

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Now when I heard the title of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s latest book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable for the first time, my mind quickly went to the incredible juggling catch by Lynn Swann in Superbowl X over the sprawled out Dallas defender. The impact of that highly improbable catch led to an eventual win for the Steelers. The impact of the highly improbable Black Swans that Taleb mentions here, are far more devastating or exhilarating, except perhaps to Steeler and Cowboy fans.

Complete aside for those of you, who like me, wanted to see some of Lynn Swann’s incredible catches again, it turns out the NFL is rather protective of their rights to their images (I do seem to recall the phrase without the express written consent of the National Football League is strictly prohibited being thrown at me a few times). Anyway, if you go to this NFL.com link, and then search on Lynn Swann, choose the Baryshnikov in Cleats video, you wont be disappointed, unless you grew up a Cowboy fan.

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