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Showerthoughts_Mod t1_ixm9v54 wrote

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Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"

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phadrus56 t1_ixmctkh wrote

May I please see the justification for this. I would assume 5 was average.

A number that typifies a set of numbers of which it is a function.

An intermediate level or degree.

The usual or ordinary kind or quality.

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OldLadderLean t1_ixmk4j4 wrote

I recall hearing a really useful tip for assessing how good a thing is, or how much you want to do a thing, whatever. You have to rate it out of 10 but you’re not allowed to use 6,7,8. Something like that. Forces you to get to the heart of whether something is truly a yes or a no.

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talkingprawn t1_ixmrumo wrote

5 is only average if the distribution of data points makes 5 the average. If the set has 1,1,4,6,9,9, the average is 5. If it has 1,2,2,3,7, the average is 3.

So for instance if most people rate a book at a 7, the average is 7.

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talkingprawn t1_ixo6dyo wrote

Sure if you’re talking about your individual response. But if you ask 100 people to rank something from 1-10, and most people cluster around 7 as their answer, then the average will be 7. You’re thinking about it from the wrong perspective.

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talkingprawn t1_ixob2ro wrote

Sorry, what? You want a citation for the existence of statistics? This is the definition of average. It’s the midpoint of a dataset.

For context, how old are you? I’m happy to share if you’re just learning this stuff. Your question seems very strange.

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talkingprawn t1_ixodfz7 wrote

And 62.3% of statistics are made up on the spot :).

I do believe the average score on tests is in the 70’s. I’ve also found things in the past indicating that the average book rating is in the 7’s. I’m not going to dig up references right now.

But for me the point is, it’s totally contextual. 7 totally can be the average.

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talkingprawn t1_ixp7wv3 wrote

Jesus. If you want proof, look at literally any rating system, like on Amazon, Hulu, or Goodreads. The average rating on goodreads is 3.7 out of 5, aka 7.4 out of 10. They’re not all exactly 7, no. But it sure as hell isn’t 5 out of 10. 5 is the middle rating (2.5 is in this case), not the average.

The average high school GPA is 3.0 out of 4.0 — aka 75% or 7.5 out of 10.

It totally varies depending on the data set. It can be 5 sometimes! But that’s coincidental. In a ton of cases, it’s 7-ish.

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