Banana, Peel Thyself

By Claudia on

Question 1
How weird would our world be if the majority of random variables did NOT follow the Gaussian (or normal or bell-curve) distribution? Think
about it. Take human height, for example. It follows a curve like the one shown in this post. Normal, right? What if that curve were of an exponential
distribution or a gamma distribution? How weird we’d all look.

Question 2
Now let’s disregard distribution shapes for a minute and think about percentiles instead. Specifically, would you rather always be in
the 5th percentile for everything or the 95th percentile for everything? By everything, I mean everything: height, weight, intelligence, blood pressure,
running speed, test scores, etc.
There are obviously upsides and downsides to both extremes, but that’s what makes it so interesting, eh?

Sorry for the weird blog. Been busy with thesis stuff and if I see the acronym “CFI” one more time today I’m going to start stabbing people.

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One response

  1. Matt Farnsworth | Reply

    1) If the majority of random variables weren’t following the Gaussian distribution, it wouldn’t be weird, it would be normal, because that would be the norm for that universe/alternate reality.
    2) I really can’t say, because for somethings I like being the 5th %isle, but most things I liek being the 95th %isle.

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