What we miss when we focus on the average | Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi

Transcriber:

When we think about data, we usually think about averages.

譯者: Yu-Chi Cheng 審譯者: Helen Chang

看著數據，我們腦中 往往想的是它的平均。

Average height, average salary,

平均身高、平均工資、

average number of hours spent on video calls.

平均花在視訊的小時數。

It’s tempting to focus on these neat little summaries of our world.

我們很容易專注於世上這些 簡潔的小摘要。

But the world is a lot messier than these averages can make it out to be.

但這個世界其實 比平均所顯示出的還要混亂。

So instead, I look for the outliers.

所以我反而專注在離群值上。

They can offer a better reflection of this chaos we call life.

這些可以更好地反應 我們稱為災難的生活型態。

And they can offer a different perspective

他們更可以提供給我們： 對於我們了解的領域

on the things that we think we understand.

不一樣的視角。

[Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi]

〔我平凡嗎？莫娜·查拉比〕

Take, for instance, the stats around teens and cigarettes.

拿青少年和菸的數據來看。

According to the CDC, between 1997 and 2019,

根據疾病管制與預防中心, 在1997與2019年間，

the percentage of American high school students who smoked plummeted

美國高中生抽菸的比例

從 36% 掉到 6%。

from 36 to just six percent.

That seems like a pretty big win,

看似是一場大勝利，

but when you break apart the data and look at the outliers,

但如果分析數據，看著那些離群值，

it is a totally different picture.

就大大不同了。

Among American Indian and native Alaskan students,

在美洲印第安人 和阿拉斯加原住民學生中，

cigarette usage is much higher than that six percent average.

抽菸的習慣遠高於那 6% 的平均。

It comes in at a sizable 21 percent.

是相當大的 21%。

All other racial and ethnic groups were in the single digits.

所有其他種族的比率都在個位數。

So what first seemed like this great success story

所以乍看這個似乎成功的故事

is actually an indicator of how much work we need to do

其實僅僅表示我們還要努力多少

to reach some of the most marginalized communities.

才能觸及到一些最邊緣的族群。

In general, when we present data as a scatterplot,

一般來說，使用散佈圖時，

the average would usually look like this.

平均會長這樣。

And where there are outliers,

而如果離群值存在，

the typical approach is to undervalue them,

通用的手段是低估它們，

to see them as a deviation from the average

低估它們， 認為它們是平均中小小的偏差

or from what society thinks is normal.

或是社會中的不正常。

But I like to call these outliers “lost birds.”

但我喜歡叫它們「丟失的鳥」。

It's a nickname I use for something or someone who has gone astray.

這是我為那些偏離者所取的綽號。

If you look hard enough,

如果你仔細查看，

you'll find that these lost birds pop up everywhere.

就會發現丟失的鳥存在於各個角落。

Like my mom, for example.

我媽媽就是一個例子。

She doesn't like being on camera, so this puppet will have to do.

她不喜歡入鏡， 因此用這個娃娃代替。

She's a soft spoken, hijabi woman who isn't much bigger than this puppet.

她是一個輕聲細語，罩著面紗， 不比我手上娃娃大多少的女人。

Because of that, it's easy for some people to underestimate her.

因此，其他人很容易低估她。

But don't let those first impressions fool you.

但別讓那些既定印象愚弄你。

“In my generation,

「在我們那個時代，

we used to listen and accept what they tell us.

我們會服從他們所告訴我們的一切。

'Do what you're told.'

『照你聽到的做。』

But when I got older,

但隨著我長大，

I just changed and I started to argue my point and get what I want."

我隨之改變，更開始爭辯我的觀點， 也得到我所想要的。」

My mom's a retired doctor, an avid ugly-dress maker,

我媽是退休醫生， 狂熱地縫製醜醜的女裝，

a mother of two and a grandmother of none.

有兩個孩子，沒有孫子。

Though she spends a fair amount of time trying to speak that into existence,

她時常抓著這個點不放，說：

"I think for every mother, for her daughter, she wants a grandchild."

「每個母親都會想要孫子。」

(Laughter)

〔笑聲〕

"Sorry, Mona."

「抱歉，莫娜。」

Moving on.

繼續。

My mom is also a lost bird.

我媽也是一隻丟失的鳥。

"Me?"

「我嗎？」

She has, statistically speaking, gone astray.

她走上了一條不太一樣的路。

"Yeah, but it was a good deviation."

「那是一個好的標準差。」

Back in the late '70s,

回想七十年代，

my mom left Iraq and moved to the UK

我媽離開了伊拉克，移居到英國

to further her medical training and practice.

以增強自己的醫療練習及技術。

She's among the four percent of people born in Iraq who now live abroad.

她是 4% 出生在伊拉克 而移居國外其中的一個。

By the early 2000s,

在兩千年初期，

just three percent of UK doctors with her experience

在英國，和她同樣經驗與執業領域的 醫生只有 3% 不是白種人。

were non-white and practicing in her speciality.

My mom is a lost bird because she is an outlier.

她是一隻丟失的鳥，也是離群值。

She's one of the rare few to leave her home country

她是少數離開出生地的，

and even rarer still among her medical peers.

更是少數後來成為醫療人士的。

We all think that the people that we love are special,

我們總認為自己愛的人最是特別，

and there is some truth to that.

那是有原因的。

But it’s worth considering the ways that we are all lost birds.

不妨換個想法， 我們都是迷途的鳥兒，

Because when we focus on the average and we ignore the outliers,

因為專注於平均值、忽略離群值，

we lose all of the richness and insights that those stories provide.

就失去那些故事背後的 豐富層次和獨特見解。

But when we dig into the deviations, we get to see the bigger picture.

但如果深掘標準差 便得以看見更整體的觀點。

One from a bird's-eye view.

一個俯看的視角。