Lindy effect
English
Etymology
In reference to Lindy's delicatessen in New York, where comedians would meet to discuss showbusiness. This was discussed in "Lindy's Law", a 1964 article by Albert Goldman in The New Republic. Goldman described a folkloric belief that the amount of material comedians have is constant, and therefore the frequency of output predicts how long their series will last.
Proper noun
the Lindy effect
- The hypothesized phenomenon that the future life expectancy of certain nonperishable things (such as a technology or an idea) is proportional to their current age, so that every additional period of survival implies a longer remaining life expectancy.
- 2018, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, chapter 8, in Skin in the Game, Penguin, →ISBN:
- Let me warn the reader: while the Lindy effect is one of the most useful, robust, and universal heuristics I know, Lindy's cheesecake is… much less distinguished. Odds are the deli will not survive, by the Lindy effect.
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