Is anyone average?
If you design a cockpit based on the average pilot body, not a single pilot will fit in it. Just ask the US Air Force.
In 1950, they measured 4,063 pilots on over 140 dimensions. Then, they took just the top ten (like height, sleeve length, etc.) and designed a cockpit that would fit anyone who lands in the middle 30% on each of those dimensions.
Unfortunately, no pilot did. In The End of Average, Todd Rose tells the story. Even when they reduced the number of dimensions to just three, less than 3.5% of all pilots would fit in the resulting cockpit. The conclusion? “There was no such thing as an average pilot.”
Yet we still tend to try and fit other people into the average box. We base our schools on the average child. We base what college they can get into on how far above average their GPA is.
That’s the problem with average: It’s calculated, not real. And even though nature rejects the idea of averages, we settle into them in the blink of an eye. It’s made up of statistical models of measurements of all kinds of people, but not one person really fits all the measurements.
It’s probably a good thing that none of us are average! But no one really has “being average” as their goal anyway. (Just remember the folks of Lake Woebegon of Garrison Keillor fame.)
I can think of a lot of qualities for us to choose instead of the boring, and non-existent, average! Why, just using the first letter of the alphabet, we can come up with a wide range of alternatives: assured, attentive, attractive, appreciated, amazing, achiever, affluent, agile, affectionate.
There’s lots of admirable choices we can make, don’t you think? And you don’t need me to remind you of all those other letters available to choose from!
P.S. I think my favorite letter for this exercise is the letter i. What’s yours?