Comments on: Mean and Median – Part 2 http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/ Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:13:54 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Tony http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3593 Tony Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:01:05 +0000 http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/#comment-3593 Hi Derek, thanks for commenting. I miss the posts on your site. I don't think you exaggerate all that much on the means. I may not always present standard deviation, but I always look at it to understand the data better. I think this has been a great discussion and hopefully opens people up to going beyond average/mean. Thanks again Derek! Hi Derek, thanks for commenting. I miss the posts on your site.

I don’t think you exaggerate all that much on the means. I may not always present standard deviation, but I always look at it to understand the data better. I think this has been a great discussion and hopefully opens people up to going beyond average/mean. Thanks again Derek!

]]> By: derek http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3592 derek Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:23:13 +0000 http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/#comment-3592 Another reason I prefer medians to means is that means don't lead anywhere very interesting, while medians lead you easily into the wonderful world of quartiles, percentiles, and other quantiles. The thing about quantiles in general is that they can provide an arbitrary level of complexity between the simple measure of central tendency, and the full account of every data point, in a way that is easy to explain in English (upper quartile = "a quarter of all points were greater than this and three quarters were less"). I exaggerate slightly about means, since you can add standard deviation, but it gets very hard to explain the meaning of such things even at that level, let alone any extra measures of statistical distribution. Another reason I prefer medians to means is that means don’t lead anywhere very interesting, while medians lead you easily into the wonderful world of quartiles, percentiles, and other quantiles. The thing about quantiles in general is that they can provide an arbitrary level of complexity between the simple measure of central tendency, and the full account of every data point, in a way that is easy to explain in English (upper quartile = “a quarter of all points were greater than this and three quarters were less”).

I exaggerate slightly about means, since you can add standard deviation, but it gets very hard to explain the meaning of such things even at that level, let alone any extra measures of statistical distribution.

]]> By: Naomi B. Robbins http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3587 Naomi B. Robbins Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:05:15 +0000 http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/#comment-3587 My black line appears gray here so please make the appropriate substitutions when reading this post. :) My black line appears gray here so please make the appropriate substitutions when reading this post. :)

]]> By: Tweets that mention Support Analytics Blog » Blog Archive » Mean and Median – Part 2 -- Topsy.com http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/comment-page-1/#comment-3586 Tweets that mention Support Analytics Blog » Blog Archive » Mean and Median – Part 2 -- Topsy.com Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:56:40 +0000 http://supportanalytics.com/blog/2010/01/mean-and-median-part-2/#comment-3586 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tony (SA), David Gerbino. David Gerbino said: Required reading RT @dsainsights: New: Mean and Median Part 2 http://bit.ly/5hjkiB #analytics [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tony (SA), David Gerbino. David Gerbino said: Required reading RT @dsainsights: New: Mean and Median Part 2 http://bit.ly/5hjkiB #analytics [...]

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