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> 50% of people perform below average Nitpick but it's "median" not "average". > everybody has an "inner child", but most functioning adults have built layers
by kubanczyk 6y ago
> 50% of people perform below average
Nitpick but it's "median" not "average".
> everybody has an "inner child", but most functioning adults have built layers
And that's the point where I'm scratching my head. What do people even mean by that? As I observe the "inner child" in others and then apply the new theory to myself it's freaking obvious that the adult part is doing all the reading, all the predicting, all the planning, all the outwitting of the child, all the building, all the self-updating, all the $dayjob. Who is writing this text? I am - the adult part. I am who has 99% of control of the communication at this moment. (At a different time the show can be 50% mine. Or 1%. But when writing, the inner child is mostly shunned, I think he cannot even write too well at all.)
And so I protest calling me "an outer shell" that you think you can just simply "re-learn". I am no shell. And I'm definitely not outside! I am the first class citizen, I just happen to have a very silent/weird/energetic/stupid/shy roommate. If I try less, he will have more control. If I try harder, he will have less. Balance. But the balance that is maintained solely by me, i.e. by the adult part - the inner child is not able to do that!
- subliun1 6y ago> Nitpick but it's "median" not "average". “average noun 1. a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean, which is calculated by dividing the sum of the values in the set by their number.“
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kubanczyk 6y agoaverage the result you get by adding two or more amounts together and dividing the total by the number of amounts https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/average https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/average
- subliun1 6y agoemail oxford and maybe they’ll fix their definition for you
- nostrebored 6y agoIf you're going to nitpick, use the mathematical definition where averages are measures of central tendency. The median is one of those measures.
- kubanczyk 6y agoCalling all the measures of central tendency "averages" is colloquial, not formal. Check your sources if you're going to nitpick my nitpicking. Saying "literally" in place of "figuratively" and then referencing the Oxford dictionary (meaning C, look no further) is a cool way to troll, and to make a fool of oneself.
- nostrebored 6y agoI don't understand why you're mad that someone cited the Oxford definition to you. It's not trolling. You're wrong, and you can see this by looking at any number of published news articles where more often than not, average is used to mean median. You can see this from the way that we use average to mean typical. 'Typical' features are more likely to be median or mode than arithmetic mean. 'Average' is itself a colloquialism, so the colloquial use is what's important.
- formerly_proven 6y agoTIL "average" in English can also mean things that aren't "the average" (mean)¹, but I also feel like "news articles" aren't a good way to source the "correct" usage of statistics terms. ¹ This makes "average" a particularly weird "false friend" vocable, because the average recipient might well take it to mean what you think it means, but might also understand it as a very closely related, but subtly different thing.
- IggleSniggle 6y agoThe more we learn about neuroscience, the more we learn that your conscious brain is merely the CEO, and that the brain is contradictory often competing sub-organizations with differing priorities and relative power in the organization. Dysfunction comes from an over-powered HR dept, etc. I largely agree with the essence of what you are saying, which is that there is no "inner child", although some people may be more capable of "reinventing the wheel" internally, which may allow for some new optimization for the overall structure.