Frank Kogan

Yes. This is how I understand what Watts is saying, and this is what guarantees unpredictability. For instance, if - as sometimes happens - I've only got time to listen to some of the songs being listed on a weekly poptimists poll, say of new songs in the British charts, I might only listen to the songs getting the most votes, so I'm more likely to listen to a song getting seven votes rather than one getting three. But seven out of ten flips of a coin, for instance, is not a surprising result, and two songs that poptimists overall would rate about equally could easily have a seven to three split in one of your polls. In any event, either if one song has a slight superiority (in the poptimist mind) or the two are equal and the higher score is due to random fluctuation, I'm still more likely to listen to the higher-scored song and therefore have the potential to vote for it. So the advantage locks in early and builds and builds. Watts calls this the "rich get richer" effect.