The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness

by Todd Rose

Any system designed around the average person is doomed to fail.

We have lost the dignity of our individuality. Our uniqueness has become a burden, an obstacle, or a regrettable distraction on the road to success.

How can a society predicated on the conviction that individuals can only be evaluated in reference to the average ever create the conditions for understanding and harnessing individuality?

once you free yourself from averagarian thinking, what previously seemed impossible will start to become intuitive, and then obvious.

almost every human characteristic that we care about—including talent, intelligence, character, creativity, and so on—is jagged.

The promise of our averagarian system of higher education keeps going down, while the costs imposed by the system keep going up.

Only equal fit creates equal opportunity.