This Graph Changes The Way You View The World

Derek Muller takes you on a whirlwind tour of power laws—from why averages can lie (hello, St. Petersburg paradox) to how outliers rule our world. You’ll see fractals and self-organized criticality in action with sandpiles, magnets and forest-fire simulations, learn why we do controlled burns, and even peek at how earthquake forecasts and business models ride these heavy-tail distributions.

Along the way you’ll meet the math wizards Steven Strogatz, Mark Buchanan and Mark Newman, and discover how the same “critical” rules pop up in everything from forest fires to Facebook likes—forcing you to rethink whether you’re playing the “normal” game or the power-law game.

Watch on YouTube