82,891
edits
Averagarianism: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
Amwelladmin (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{a|devil|}}{{dpn||n}}The mistake of attributing an emergent mathematical property of a group to some or all the individual members of the group. | {{a|devil|}}{{dpn|/ˈævᵊrɪʤeəriənɪzᵊm/|n}}The mistake of attributing an emergent mathematical property of a group to some or all the individual members of the group. | ||
The folly of reasoning from the general to the particular with statistics. | The folly of reasoning from the general to the particular with statistics. | ||
For example, the [[Bill Gates on a bus]] paradox: the average wealth of 99 bankrupts and one billionaire is ten million dollars. But not one individual in the group has an income anywhere close to ten million dollars. | For example, the [[Bill Gates on a bus]] paradox: the ''average'' wealth of 99 bankrupts and one billionaire is ten million dollars. But not one individual in the group has an income anywhere close to ten million dollars. The median wealth is zero. The median effectively discounts outliers either side, so is more likely to represent the “real consensus”. | ||
See also the “average fighter pilot,” that Gladwellian character from any number of popular science books. | See also the “average fighter pilot,” that Gladwellian character from any number of popular science books. | ||
| Line 9: | Line 9: | ||
Lesson one: do not manage from the average to the particular. | Lesson one: do not manage from the average to the particular. | ||
Then there is the story — oft repeated at a microscale, ''sans doubte'' — of the global investment bank which addressed its gender pay gap by laterally recruiting a new [[general counsel]] for ten million dollars. Remaining victims of pay disparity remained unmoved, and undercompensated. (This is not to say | Then there is the story — oft repeated at a microscale, ''sans doubte'' — of the global investment bank which addressed its gender pay gap by laterally recruiting a new [[general counsel]] for ten million dollars. Remaining victims of pay disparity remained unmoved, and undercompensated. (This is not to say, “don’t act to correct pay unfairness”; just “don’t do it by massaging the average”. Seek out and rectify, you know, ''actual pay unfairness''. In the particular.) | ||
Lesson two: ''definitely'' do not manage from the particular to the average. | Lesson two: ''definitely'' do not manage from the particular to the average. | ||
| Line 33: | Line 33: | ||
{{sa}} | {{sa}} | ||
*{{br|The End of Average: How to Succeed in a World That Values Sameness}} | *{{br|The End of Average: How to Succeed in a World That Values Sameness}} | ||
*[[Metis]] | |||
*[[Big data]] | *[[Big data]] | ||
*[[Data modernism]] | *[[Data modernism]] | ||