[extropy-chat] an(other) Aussie visits Texas

[Damien Broderick]

At 12:45 AM 1/29/2007 -0500, PJ wrote:

>But that's really not an excuse either.  Don't forget.  50% of 
>people are below average.  THAT'S the truth that's out there.

True, but I think the practical implications of that mathematical 
truism are not instantly obvious. For a start, people who score 
between, say, 95 and 105 are not especially distinguishable from each 
another in the real world, yet they make up a large chunk in the 
middle of the crowd. On the other hand, people with average scores 
plus or minus a bit do seem, looking from the outskirts, to be 
astonishingly thick, slow and incurious. I suspect it's more relevant 
to say: "Don't forget, nearly 70% of people are between 85 and 115, 
plus a bunch of the terminally stupid on the left tail, and 95% of 
people either side of the average are under 130, are you scared yet?"

Damien Broderick