# Power law rules all

By [surya](https://paragraph.com/@surya) · 2022-01-26

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In my extremely limited time shipping products/projects I’ve come to realize everything is governed by power laws.

.7% of Spotify Artists rake in over 90% of payout revenues from Spotify\[[1](https://www.igroovemusic.com/blog/how-many-artists-actually-make-bank-on-spotify.html?lang=en)\] and the top 1% of wealth in the US have over 16x of the bottom 50%

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/4ed62d5c3aff21a23ed3554a0c1f527ec26faa07bc7e1a635b7d601a11774688.png)

And if you make over $30 a day you’re in the top 15% of people in the world

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e6513f4932131339bb975cd4fc8d6333ed32760f038c9d07dccfad2574dcbdec.png)

These numbers seem insane; but they don’t stop with wealth in traditional families or income earners, it resonates everywhere

I don’t have the statistics on hand (if im wrong ill edit this later) but I’m fairly sure top 1% of startups make it to their later stage rounds and a even smaller fraction ever make it to an IPO or merger

If you spend even an hour on-chain going through wallets, their txs, and contracts; you’ll see clearly theres only a handful of bandits that make it out alive while most get rugged (even if they say “wagmi” and “gm” everyday cheering bagholders up)

![Example of countless coin holder distributions](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6789dc60c8aec61a096afd4284cdde7c166fc04785182fb6c0b13762a7333c79.png)

Example of countless coin holder distributions

Needless to say, we are not all gonna make it. 99% of us aren’t.

1% are people who’ve been shoved into that 99% category countless number of times until they found an edge (or got lucky) to be put in that 1% spot and make it all back in 1 go

I’ve tried and shipped many products, many failing but some wildly succeeding; I think its part luck and part being put in that 99% category so many times I had nothing else to lose

**TLDR**: 99% of the time we are not gonna make it out alive. Whether its wealth or success; but putting yourself in the position to drastically fail or wildly succeed is the most +EV bet you can make imo. Why would you succumb to a FANG job where you’re destined to be part of the 99% for the rest of your life when you can fail 99% of the time with a chance to wildly succeed at something?

**Most of the things ive worked on have either failed horribly or wildly succeed. I can’t imagine doing anything so rewarding even if it comes so rarely.**

You cannot be mid, only insane.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/7ef69ed696d518cebd10616c3a1a1d70165f8f0c912ca2e0c934d494c8128f8e.png)

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*Originally published on [surya](https://paragraph.com/@surya/power-law-rules-all)*