The End of Average cover

The End of Average

by Todd Rose

Why don't Meyers-Briggs personality tests really work? Why are HR tests for new employees often meaningless? Why doesn't BMI - body mass index - correlate to actual health or physical fitness? Individuals behave, learn, and develop in different ways, but these unique patterns of human behavior get lost in massive systems that play to average performance and average abilities, instead of individual performance and abilities. These systems made sense almost two centuries ago at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, but in today's globalized digital world they are outdated and inadequate. Yet, every single one of us is affected by these archaic systems. They are far more prevalent that you can imagine, and far more insidious: standardized tests, academic grading systems, job applicant profiling, job performance reviews, job training, even medical treatments. These systems ignore our differences and ultimately fail at measuring and maximizing our potential. As the first popular book on the science of the individual, The End of Average draws upon the very latest findings in the fields of psychology and sociology to show how, when we focus on individual findings rather than group averages, we are empowered to rethink the world and our place in it.

More by Todd Rose

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?