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aLobsterFest t1_iuufo2p wrote

"the average is between X and Y" is an accurate statement. The average is definitely between those two numbers.

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crazy-robot-guy t1_iuum3sw wrote

Yeah, but those two numbers are so far apart that any reasonable person (and probably most unreasonable ones too) could probably have guessed that. If I say "the average human body temperature is between 20 and 70 degrees Celsius", while I may be technically accurate, I'm in no way communicating useful information.

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_AndyJessop t1_iuv6u14 wrote

I don't know if it's not useful. After reading the title, I was imagining a bell curve with the given bounds at about 2 standard deviations. Probably pretty accurate.

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crazy-robot-guy t1_iuywkfs wrote

Then it's worse than not useful, it's potentially very misleading - real-world data (and salaries in particular) do not always follow that distribution. There's a reason medians are often the preferred benchmark.

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