5 ms·
One issue I take with the general practitioners I frequently come in contact with is their usage of the word "average". In the broadest sense, there are two ty
by DecayingOrganic 7y ago
One issue I take with the general practitioners I frequently come in contact with is their usage of the word "average".
In the broadest sense, there are two types of things in the world: things that tend toward (or cluster around) some kind of “natural” value, and things that don’t.
Often times, you are not briefed on the distribution of the graph which the very "average" is being derived from, viscerally it is being surmised that it follows a “Gaussian” distribution by the patient which then makes significant medical decisions based on such bits of information.
Therefore, I'd advise caution for those who'd base their medical decisions on arbitrary "averages", instead you are much better off if you were to take a look at the graph to see if the word "average" carries any meaning at all in such distributions.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoA man with a PhD in Chemistry once told me "The average human would have one tit, one nut and a three inch weiner." (As best I can remember, those were his exact words. No, I'm not cleaning it up to be more PC.)
- kube-system 7y agoSomeone with a PhD in math might remind them that modes and medians are averaging techniques too. “Average” is a very vague term.
- DoreenMichele 7y agoMost people mean mean when saying average. It stuck with me because it's a nutshell version of the book "How to lie with statistics" in a humorous and highly memorable form. Someone with one breast, one testicle and a little penis would be a bizarre statistical outlier for the human race, but "mathematically" speaking, it's an accurate description. It speaks to a lot of common errors of logic and it's pithy.