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Averages are the mind-killer. Don't show me the average, show me the distribution. Any time that you present an average over a data set that isn't approximately
by kibwen 2y ago
Averages are the mind-killer. Don't show me the average, show me the distribution. Any time that you present an average over a data set that isn't approximately a normal distribution, you're committing statistical malpractice.
- jihadjihad 2y ago> Don't show me the average, show me the distribution. Put another way, don't give me a measure of center (mean) without a corresponding measure of spread (variance/standard deviation). Providing a measure of center for something that is approximately normal doesn't obviate the need for a measure of spread--you could have two distributions with the same mean but wildly different spread of results due to variance.
- cake-rusk 2y agoI think the GP wants to see the actual distribution graph.
- 10000truths 2y agoYes, single scalar values tell you nothing useful if you have no a priori knowledge of the shape of your distribution. Mean and variance are meaningless figures if your distribution is multimodal, for example. If you truly have to compress the distribution into a few numbers, then the best thing to do is to represent it as a series of quantile values. In cases where the distribution is unknown, evenly spaced quantile values are a good start.
- cantrecallmypwd 2y agoThis is the underlying flaw of Ground News and both-sides-ism shifting the Overton Window right.
- sieabahlpark 2y ago[dead]