The End of Average | Todd Rose | Talks at Google

Are you above average? Is your child an A (or D) 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 resemble it or how far we deviate from it.

The assumption that metrics comparing us to an average—like developmental milestones, GPAs, personality assessments, standardized test results, and performance review rankings—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 draws on insights from the new science of the individual to show 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.

Rose offers an alternative—the three principles of individuality—and reveals how to take full advantage of them to gain an edge in school, in our careers, and in life.

Debbie Newhouse moderated this Talk at Google.

About Dr. 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 the Individual. The Lab's flagship project is the Individual Mastery Project, also at the Harvard School of Education, a long-term study investigating the development of individual excellence and expertise. He is also the co-founder of The Center for Individual Opportunity, a non-profit organization that promotes the principles of individuality in work, school, and society.