The danger of making decisions based on averages

Another less explored human decision-making trap is the tendency to rely upon averages to help us make more informed decisions. If you make decisions based upon averages, at best, you’ll get average results. Beware of making decisions based on averages because one can drown in a river with an average depth of only 6 inches.The challenge with making decisions based on averages is that no one is average. For example, the United States Air Force pilots were struggling to effectively command their fighter jets in the 1950s. The problem was that the cockpit had a standard design based on the 1920s average pilot. The Air Force decided to update their measurement of the average pilot and adjust the cockpit design accordingly^[3].Air Force Lieutenant Gilbert Daniels measured more than 4,000 pilots across 10 size dimensions to create an updated standard cockpit design. The air force had assumed that most pilots would fall within average across...