On the subject of Statistically Below Average. As I wrote in that linked post an average doesn’t really exist. Or more precisely it exists only in imagination, a bleak semblance to the granularity of life. The media and culture are going global, the demarcations are demolished. But the ever increasing part of our knowledge is the media based myth mongering. Media brands are formed by the iconic images or the iconic people, in other words the objects that have nothing to do with the average but are a statistical aberration. So let me illustrate this. What most people think about Russians for example, has nothing to with the Russians they met in real life but rather a summary of films, news, maybe even books, etc. In fact when they meet a real Russian, most are not trying to learn about Russians from that person but they are trying to describe the real person in terms of a preexisting myth. I guess this is OK if you are a Coca Cola, but not OK if you are a human being. Same goes for various phobias of an average homophobe, jewdophobe, etc., and conversely your average francophil, russophil, etc. But if you have to generalize, then generalize the real people please. I am not sure it’s stil an option. May be it was never an option.
Further Reading:
How to win Facebook Fans and Influence People
Matt Jones – People and Ideas are Interesting, not Social Media
Negative Generalizations
