• Godric@lemmy.worldOP
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      3 days ago

      Reminds me of an old Carlin joke:

      "Think about how stupid the average person you meet in a day is. Think about it, think about it.

      HALF OF THEM ARE EVEN STUPIDER THAN THAT!"

      • lad@programming.dev
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        3 days ago

        But it’s an average, there’s chance of more than a half (although with normal distribution we should expect average and median to be the same)

        • FishFace@piefed.social
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          2 days ago

          Given that average can refer to median, and he’s saying that half of people are stupider than the average, we can conclude he probably meant the median :)

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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          3 days ago

          A median is specifically a method of taking an average that always results in half above and half below. Take the total number of participants, divide it by two, then count that number from either end. The middle is the median. It’s a more accurate form of averages for statistical analysis.

          Mean is where you add all of the scores and divide by the total number of participants. It’s more liable to be skewed by outliers, so not necessarily in the dead center of the list. It’s often avoided in statistical analysis for that reason.

          Edit: I just reread your comment and on second glance it seems we’re saying the same thing. I should have replied to the commenter below you…

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          I actually went and investigated this at some point out of curiosity and came across a paper showing that intelligence is not a normal distribution but a sum of TWO normal distributions, the second one much smaller than the first and slightly offset (towards the lower values if I remember it correctly).

          That being so, for the distribution of intelligence in humans the median is not the same as the mean (which is what’s commonly meant by “average”) so it’s slightly incorrect to say that half of people are below average intelligence.

            • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 days ago

              If I remember it correctly, the second normal at lower IQs was due to environmental factors during growing up that caused some people to have a lower level of intelligence that they would otherwise have.

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          Did they stop teaching the difference between mean, median, and mode the year after I left elementary school? It seems like nobody knows that those are all three types of average anymore

          • lad@programming.dev
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            2 days ago

            I don’t really get your point as under the assumption of normal distribution all three are the same

            Albeit there was another comment about intelligence not being normal distribution which is a bit unfortunate imo

            And practically every time I see someone talk about average it is a mean, a lot rarer it’s median, and I never heard anyone talk about mode in general public

    • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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      2 days ago

      I have unironically seen rich people say that everyone can be above average as an excuse of why things are the way they are.

    • yabai@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      While the median is hard to believe, I think it’s worse in some ways that half of the students are performing worse than the mean.

      • alekwithak@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Look man, my NAS is acting up, my kid is acting up, my work… is acting up, if I gotta take a break and leave a cozy little dumb comment on a Lemmy post to feel something non-negative for a fraction of a second I feel I should have that right.
        And besides, Lemmy needs engagement, right? Look at us, we’re doing it!

        • voodooattack@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          when everything is acting up

          the server, kid, and stage

          sometimes the bravest thing to do

          is turn a single page

          not every bit needs pushing through

          not every load needs borne

          a rest is not a missing note —

          it’s how the song is formed

          you left a little comment here

          a small and cozy light

          and someone read it, felt it land,

          and held it through the night

          so post your little posts, my friend

          the network needs the thread

          a system with no idle time

          is one that’s nearly dead

  • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
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    3 days ago

    Clearly the education system failed this man, he has no critical thinking skills and is confident enough about himself to post stupid shit like this.

  • k0e3@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    I had a hard time getting the joke. They mean, “… students are in the bottom quartile,” right?

    • f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz
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      3 days ago

      Twitter… Jack Kimble is a fictional, satirical account.

      The first “sentence” starts with a preposition; and, yes, the second isn’t a sentence. It’s more like an interjection, as in, “Behold! 25% of students in the bottom quartile!”

  • AgentOrangesicle@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Shit, we’re on par with Antarcticans.

    …which they would take offense to if they could read! Oooooooooo, Antarctica burn!(Sorry McMurdough.)