We Need to Let Go of the Bell Curve
Briefings

Deep down, most managers assume the world is essentially “Gaussian.” That means we believe most things are distributed, or should be distributed, according to conventional “bell curves.” In that kind of world, most cardholders and donors, for example, would spend or contribute close to the average, and the remaining people would fan out symmetrically on each side of that average amount of money. The mean, median, and .....

Deep down, most managers assume the world is essentially “Gaussian.” That means we believe most things are distributed, or should be distributed, according to conventional “bell curves.” In that kind of world, most cardholders and donors, for example, would spend or contribute close to the average, and the remaining people would fan out symmetrically on each side of that average amount of money. The mean, median, and .....