On Average

99% Invisible

SiriusXM Podcasts and Roman Mars

Arts, Design

4.8 • 28.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2016

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In many ways, the built world was not designed for you. It was designed for the average person. Standardized tests, building codes, insurance rates, clothing sizes, The Dow Jones – all these measurements are based around the concept of an … Continue re...

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars.
0:05.0	Your world has not been designed for you.
0:08.0	In large part, it has been designed for the average person.
0:11.0	Throughout your education, you've been given standardized tests and been
0:14.6	graded by how well you perform compared to the average. Building codes,
0:19.3	insurance rates, Dow Jones, all these measurements are based around the concept of an average.
0:25.0	And it's okay, we know you're not average.
0:28.0	You're really special.
0:29.0	Oh, thanks Avery Troffman.
0:31.0	Well, I mean it, you're not average. No one is, not completely. But the concept of average affects
0:36.8	us all.
0:38.1	Everything seemed to be based around this reference point of average. And obviously everything
0:42.3	about society is built this way but I'd never really
0:45.0	thought of it until I dug into this new science that I'm a part of.
0:48.8	This is Todd Rose.
0:50.4	My name is Todd Rose.
0:51.4	I am the director of the Mind Brain Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
0:56.2	He's also the author of the book The End of Average. But to get to that, first we have to start with the beginning of average.
1:05.7	Because it wasn't always a thing. The concept of average as we know it was pioneered by a Belgian mathematician and astronomer
1:10.5	named Adolf Kettile.
1:11.9	So Kettile is the person who actually coins the astronomer is actually an astronomer in Belgium. Today the way that most people get a handle on any set of numbers
1:26.0	is to calculate the average.
	...

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