Random computer simulation produces wealth distribution similar to reality

Re:Random computer simulation produces wealth distribution s... by nopinsight on Thursday March 01, 2018 @07:33PM (#16497762)

Luck does play a role in life, but clearly it is not the entire story.

The simulation in the article does NOT explain why five of the most valuable public companies on earth, Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Facebook, are all cofounded by people with IQ and possibly work ethics 3-4+ SDs above population means. (Check out the biographies including the academic records of the cofounders if you have doubts about this statement.)

Many mechanisms can exhibit the same broad effect. Showing that a simulation reproduces one phenomenon of the real world falls far short of showing that it resembles the real mechanism in any substantive way.

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Re:Random computer simulation produces wealth distribution s... by wfebi72to on Friday March 02, 2018 @03:32AM (#16499975)

All those five company cofounders depended for their success on algorithms orginated by the likes of Donald Knuth, who is as hardworking and probably smarter than them, but they are exponentially richer

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Re:Random computer simulation produces wealth distribution s... by nopinsight on Friday March 02, 2018 @05:59AM (#16500538)

Knuth never wanted to run a business (to my knowledge). Ambition and desire are necessary though not sufficient factors for business success.

Knuth did achieve immortality through his magnum opus, which is another kind of major success.

I'm just arguing that wealth distribution is not random in the real world, not justifying whether it should be one way or another.

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