Danger of math humour and graphs! I promise nothing!
No, seriously, roughly 66% of people fall within the “average” range, on a huge number of measures and are therefore, for all practical purposes, average.
This is a simple truth that seems to have escaped damn near everyone and unfortunately it plays out in a variety of ways in politics, economics and public perception.
Because far too often people use the term “below average” as if it actually means something.
And often it doesn’t.
Who? Who feels Goodman?? D:
There has been some discussion about why social memes seem to spread so quickly through society and also why it is that they always seem to change just enough to remain interesting, while still keeping their essential features.
I’ve got a few theories about that, but the big one is this: spreading a meme correctly gives some sort of psychological payoff to the person who spreads it.
So spreading exciting things feels good, even when the things you are spreading are downright horrible.
