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Comment by dcminter | Hacker News Reader

Well, if we're telling stats jokes...

A statistician is a man who with his head in the freezer and his feet in the oven can say "On the whole I feel perfectly normal."

Recommended reading: 'How to lie with statistics' - Huff, 1954

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The average body temperature of the people in a hospital is in the normal range. Many do have a slight fever, but some are in the fridge.

Our stat prof was a very special guy.

I’d recommend reading “How to make the world count” instead of a work of a morally bankrupt guy who used the very same tricks he criticized to discredit the cancer studies of tobacco usage.

I suppose you mean the book "How to Make the World Add Up" of Tim Harford?! :-)

Everyone should just read everything by Tim Harford and then the world would be a better place.

Busted! Yes indeed!

I'd recommend reading whichever book is better.

After all the average human has one breast and one testicle.

Amd less than 2 legs.

If even one person has 1 leg, then the average is strictly less than 2.

I’ve heard this phrased as “the average person has an above average number of legs”.

Wouldn't "the typical person has above average number of legs" or some such be better?

Yes, but less pithy. Placing the "average person" next to the "average number of legs" makes it clear that the idiomatic and intuitive sense of "average" that most people have is wrong. The more precise "typical person" doesn't make that same point as well, though an intelligent reader would certainly be expected to be able to read the same from it.

Median person?

Bill Gates walked into a bar. Everyone was, on average, a multi millionaire.

Large bar.

Haha yes, should have said average billionaire!

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