Notes

Measures of location:

http://itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/eda/section3/eda351.htm

"A fundamental task in many statistical analyses is to estimate a location parameter for the distribution; i.e., to find a typical or central value that best describes the data."

Deficiency of a single statistics describing the distribution:

If Bill Gates were to move to a town with 10,000 penniless people the average (mean) income would be more than a million and might suggest that the town is full of millionaires.

Average in a normal distribution, and in a bimodal distribution:

1) a normal distribution where the average is the most common response; and,

2) a bimodal distribution where the average is the least common response.

In the first image, the word that seems to describe it is "consensus" and the second is more like design by

committee, i.e., the average result does not reflect anyone's opinion. This could be described as extreme compromise.

Here are a couple more aphorisms for the list:

Analysts who use averages for interpretation cannot expect anything better than average results.

Average people are ( on average ) content with averages.

Averages hide the trees in the forest.