“The problem may be briefly stated: What does "median mortality of eight months" signify in our vernacular? I suspect that most people, without training in statistics, would read such a statement as "I will probably be dead in eight months" - the very conclusion that must be avoided, since it isn't so, and since attitude matters so much.”

— Stephen Jay Gould

The Median Isn't the Message (1985)

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Stephen Jay Gould 274

American evolutionary biologist 1941–2002

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