3 ms·
> So far as I can tell, the common word for statistical mean is "average" in English You're quite probably right about common parlance.. > but it's not the c
by p0llard 6y ago
> So far as I can tell, the common word for statistical mean is "average" in English
You're quite probably right about common parlance..
> but it's not the correct technical language.
..but as you point out it's not really appropriate in a technical context, indeed I don't think I've come across the term "average" being used in this way in technical literature; I've normally either seen expectation (for probability theoretic cases) or mean (for statistical cases).
> So nobody should be hard on themselves for not knowing the difference.
Absolutely, which is why I think being hard on someone for not knowing the difference between "the average" and the median is similarly an issue.
- pmiller2 6y agoYou realize that an interview is not the same as writing a technical article, right? It should be a conversation between two potential coworkers, and, in that context, I think saying "average" instead of "mean" is totally fine. Incidentally, "mean" doesn't quite cut it, if you want to be a stickler about it. There are several types of means: arithmetic, geometric, harmonic, etc. By that standard, you just failed the interview.