Are you Above Average? How Do We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness
Every day we are measured against the yardstick of averages, judged according to how closely we come to it or how far we deviate from it.
The assumption that metrics comparing us to an average—like GPAs, personality test results, and performance review ratings— is so ingrained in our consciousness that we don’t even question it.
That assumption, says Harvard’s Todd Rose, in his book End of Average, is spectacularly—and scientifically—wrong
The average-size-fits-all model ignores our differences and fails at recognizing talent.
In the early 1940s, gynecologists made an alabaster model of a typical young female by averaging the proportions of thousands of women.
The statue, named Norma, was hailed as a physical ideal.
Yet when a newspaper ran a contest fewer than 40 applicants even came close.
Instead, he recommends the three principles of individuality in his book that I highly recommend
“Our modern conception of the average person is not a mathematical truth but a human invention, created a century and a half ago by two European scientists to solve the social problems of their era.”
Have you ever felt limited by your need to fit within the curve and excel against the average?
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Book – The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness
4/5