I guess this is about the "average" paradox? There is a presentation will probably appeal to the average hn user (hopefully). Across one dimension, nobody woul

I guess this is about the "average" paradox? There is a presentation will probably appeal to the average hn user (hopefully). Across one dimension, nobody would feel the need to question the utility of considering an average, e.g. the average salary of a user. Of course the average may or may not be very informative, given the underlying distribution. And everybody knows there are statistical tools specifically made to address these questions. Things get funky when we consider an average across multiple dimensions, and that is when people will question the use/benefit of these tools. This is also a well-known paradox that there is no "average soldier" in the army. Regarding hn, it is safe to say there are different cohorts frequenting the site, interacting mostly with threads that are relevant to them. So averaging other these cohorts might not be very meaningful. However, this is also a known problems for which solutions exist. Just ask any marketing department... So, isn't complaining about this very much about complaining about bad usage of a given tool? If you use a hammer only to hit on your fingers, you might think hammers are useless and even dangerous.