The Problems with Averaging:
Have you heard of people who said : "on average you are fine". this usually means that specific experience is NOT fine, hence the use of Averages.
Example, Our sales this month is only 60% of target, but on average for the year, we are still fine... since last month our sales was 100% better than target...
I was prompted with a cartoon I once saw ... a picture of a man, obviously drunk. He leans on a lamppost with a bottle of half drunk wine in hand. the lampposts shines brightly on this man... and the caption that reads : he uses statistics like this man uses a lamppost, for support rather than illumination. I can't recall the original artist or the publication, so I would attribute this to the original artist and publication (whoever he/she is, whatever it is)...
If your head is in the oven and your feet are in the freezer...then you are fine on average (or are you?)
Sunday, July 29, 2007
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