The central limit theorem and law of large numbers only hold when variance is bounded and finite, but in fat-tailed distributions like Pareto distributions these conditions fail, requiring sample sizes of 10^13 instead of 30 to achieve the same statistical stability.
factualpending
Speaker
Nassim TalebEvidence Quote
“to get the mean and you're the same reliability for the mean for a sample of 30 you need 10 to the 13”
Source
A conversation between Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Stephen Wolfram at the Wolfram Summer School 2021— WolframCreated: 8/11/2026, 1:49:43 AM
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