Ideas change everything

What we miss when we focus on the average

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Mona Chalabi |

Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi

• November 2021

It's tempting to focus on averages when we think about data, but the world is a lot messier than those numbers can make it out to be. So what could we gain if we shifted our attention to the outliers in the data, or as data journalist Mona Chalabi likes to call them, the lost birds? Want to hear more from Mona? Check out her podcast Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi, from the TED Audio Collective.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

It's tempting to focus on averages when we think about data, but the world is a lot messier than those numbers can make it out to be. So what could we gain if we shifted our attention to the outliers in the data, or as data journalist Mona Chalabi likes to call them, the lost birds? Want to hear more from Mona? Check out her podcast Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi, from the TED Audio Collective.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

About the speaker

Data journalist

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Mona Chalabi tries to take the numb out of numbers. She's left with lots of "ers."

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Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi

In this TED series, endlessly curious data journalist Mona Chalabi investigates the research behind tricky questions — with the help of creative data visualizations. Do I have enough friends? How accurate is weather reporting? Should it take me this long to get over my ex? And there's a podcast too! To dive deeper into these topics and more, follow Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi wherever you get your podcasts.

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