The central limit theorem is a fundamental concept in statistics. The theorem explains why many real-world distributions of things often look like a bell curve — the standard normal.
And the standard normal, the bell curve, is seen almost everywhere in nature. You see it in physics, information theory, pictures of people, landscapes, medical tests, my school grades, EVERYWHERE!
It’s worth pointing out that not everything follows a normal distribution. There are power laws, fractal patterns — snowflakes, or other non-normal distributions. But this isn’t a math blog or a statistics post. This is about how an interesting concept helps me understand some aspects of my own reality….
And that makes me think, well, since most things fall into that pattern, it seems fair to say that most things are within some distribution of “normalcy”. And if that’s fair to say, then I believe it’s also fair to say that some of the most interesting experiences are at the margins or the far end of the distributions… that’s probably where you can find my thoughts most of the time.
Most things that happen are within a few standard deviations of some type of expected normal. Outliers and edges are to be feared or advanced towards — your mileage may vary.
