What are heavy-tailed rewards?

Heavy-tailed rewards are when you have a chance to get super big wins, but most of the time, you just get normal results.

Imagine you're playing a game where sometimes you win a huge prize, like a giant candy bar that takes up your whole backpack, but most of the time, you only get one or two small candies. That’s what heavy-tailed rewards are like in real life too!

Let's say you have a lemonade stand. Most days, you sell just enough lemonade to buy another cup for yourself, that's your normal result. But once in a while, it's so hot outside, and everyone buys lemonade! You make super big money, enough to buy a whole new set of cups or even go to the park.

That’s how heavy-tailed rewards work, you get mostly small wins, but every now and then, you hit a big win that changes things up!

Think about fishing. Most days, you catch just one or two fish, normal results. But once in a while, you catch a giant fish, like the biggest one in the lake! That’s your super big win.

Heavy-tailed rewards are like that, mostly small things, but sometimes something really special happens!