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    The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness
    The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness
    The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness
    Audiobook6 hours

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

    Written by Todd Rose

    Narrated by Fred Sanders

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Are you above average? Is your child an A student? Is your employee an introvert or an extrovert? Every day we are measured against the yardstick of averages, judged according to how closely we come to it or how far we deviate from it.

    The assumption that metrics comparing us to an average—like GPAs, personality test results, and performance review ratings—reveal something meaningful about our potential is so ingrained in our consciousness that we don’t even question it. That assumption, says Harvard’s Todd Rose, is spectacularly—and scientifically—wrong.

    In The End of Average, Rose, a rising star in the new field of the science of the individual shows that no one is average. Not you. Not your kids. Not your employees. This isn’t hollow sloganeering—it’s a mathematical fact with enormous practical consequences. But while we know people learn and develop in distinctive ways, these unique patterns of behaviors are lost in our schools and businesses which have been designed around the mythical “average person.” This average-size-fits-all model ignores our differences and fails at recognizing talent. It’s time to change it.

    Weaving science, history, and his personal experiences as a high school dropout, Rose offers a powerful alternative to understanding individuals through averages: the three principles of individuality. The jaggedness principle (talent is always jagged), the context principle (traits are a myth), and the pathways principle (we all walk the road less traveled) help us understand our true uniqueness—and that of others—and how to take full advantage of individuality to gain an edge in life.

    Read this powerful manifesto in the ranks of Drive, Quiet, and Mindset—and you won’t see averages or talent in the same way again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 19, 2016
    ISBN9780062415806
    Author

    Todd Rose

    Todd Rose is the director of the Mind, Brain, and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he leads the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality. He is also the cofounder and president of the Center for Individual Opportunity, an organization dedicated to providing leadership around the emerging science of the individual. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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    Reviews for The End of Average

    4.5/5

    108 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I found the book to start a little slow but it turns out it's great. It honestly was influential and changed my mind in alot of ways, most importantly helped me as a teacher to have an alternative to the way education works (I never liked the current education system but didn't have a real alternative). I highly recommend this to anyone.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely outstanding! I worked in education for 30 years and most of that time I was fighting and advocating for the very same changes in the system at all levels. Dr. Rose totally captured my frustration, but also very eloquently pointed out the attainable solutions to the problems associated with working and learning in an average based system.
    • 4/5
      The big idea of why average does not work is worth the read. Basically if there is an average but no individual fits the average then what is it really doing for us(He explains this way better). That said I found it a little drawn out, and the last part he goes on about his vision for a better educational system which seems a bit off topic.
    • 5/5
      This is an excellent book! The author points out the plethora of issues that arise from averagerian thinking. He closes out with workable solution’s that I think we should adopt. Worth the read! Individuals > Average conformity
    • 5/5
      This book was an eye opener, had some practical advice for college students and is a great read for anyone who felt stifled by our educational system or by the expectations of those around them
    • 2/5
      Another book that could've been better as a long blog post. Really disappointing on "How We Succeed": own your individuality, take charge of your learning, MOOCs, the usual.
    • 4/5
      Todd Rose's book explores how Western cultures and social institutions became oriented around the idea of the average person and exposes the central flaw of this approach. Averages are based around the concept that each unit being averaged is roughly identical, whereas people are individual and unique. Rose explores how to recognize your own individuality and work within current systems to make them work for you. He also advocates for ways of altering business and educational institutions to orient around the individual rather than the average. A well-researched and fascinating non-fiction read, I found the historical sections most interesting. While Rose's arguments about altering education to an individual oriented system, I found myself a bit skeptical that such a massive, time- and money-intensive alteration is viable for the near future. An intriguing and recommended read.