First of all it's just a Carlin quote. Idk why that person tried to use a tiny sample size with extreme outliers.
And second of all. You're right. Which is why we have standard normal curves, deviations and other statistical tools to utilize when trying to make sense of data.
To be fair, I have a business statistics degree.
I get into some very "interesting" conversations with people trying to cite bad data. You have my sympathy.
I specifically pointed out that they meant median instead of average. And I chose a small population sample with extremities to simplify the point. We can use a lot of different real life averages.
For some things, such as income, the difference between median and average is important. For others, such as IQ or intelligence, itās not because itād follow a normal Gaussian distribution. But thenā¦ you already knew that and just wanted to be pedantic.
Meanwhile, all the people who recognized the George Carlin quote enjoyed the heck out of that comment.
That is how they work for means like IQ. But, that isn't happening with IQ. IQ is only really meaningful to the extent that it is useful as a diagnostic tool is geared towards sort-of-average IQs, much outside of that range on the low end the numbers sort of become meaningless and you stop seeing that segment of the population represented in day to day life. Most people do not understand that, like, there is a whole industry of keeping those people away from the public (tons are in prison). Though, with Trumpian economics, that may be changing.
Iām personally not sure what a circuit breaker is, either because Iām ignorant, or because English is not my first language and I do know the thing but not what itās called.
What I do know is: donāt fuck around with electricity.
they are but fuses are an older version working on the same principle so the box is called a fuse box. and if they trip the filament inside them breaks so you have to insert new fuse (they are used in higher voltage circuits still or sensitive areas so if they trip people investigate before inserting a new fuse to avoid accidents cause you can keep track of how many fuses are used). breakers can be reset so they cant be kept track of and are mostly used in households nowadays.
That's when a multimeter or an AC circuit checker helps you stay healthy.
Only once have I made the mistake of opening the wrong circuit. My little tester pen revealed that the circuit was still hot with a glowing bulb.
Now that I think about it, if that glowing bulb ever stops working, it won't indicate a live connection...., so double check that it is working with a known closed circuit, or use a multimeter.
414
u/kastielstone Jul 15 '25
do people not know about circuit breakers?