When we think about data, we usually think about averages. Average height, average salary, average number of hours spent on video calls. It’s tempting to focus on these neat little summaries of our world.
Kada razmišljamo o podacima, obično mislimo na prosek. Prosečna visina, prosečna plata, prosečan broj sati proveden na video pozive. Vuče nas da se fokusiramo na ove male uređene podatke našeg sveta.
But the world is a lot messier than these averages can make it out to be. So instead, I look for the outliers. They can offer a better reflection of this chaos we call life. And they can offer a different perspective on the things that we think we understand.
Zapravo, svet je mnogo neuredniji nego što prosek to može dokazati. Umesto toga, ja obraćam pažnju na izuzetke. Oni mogu da ponude bolji odraz ovog velikog haosa koji zovemo životom. Takođe oni mogu da ponude drugačiji pogled na stvari koje mi mislimo da razumemo.
[Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi]
[Da li sam ja normalan? sa Monom Šalabi]
Take, for instance, the stats around teens and cigarettes. According to the CDC, between 1997 and 2019, the percentage of American high school students who smoked plummeted from 36 to just six percent. That seems like a pretty big win, but when you break apart the data and look at the outliers, it is a totally different picture. Among American Indian and native Alaskan students, cigarette usage is much higher than that six percent average. It comes in at a sizable 21 percent. All other racial and ethnic groups were in the single digits.
Uzmimo za primer statistiku srednjoškolaca i cigareta. Prema CKB, između 1997 i 2019, procenat američkih srednjoškolaca koji puše je pao sa 36 na samo šest procenata. To izgleda kao veliki plus, ali kada razbijemo podatke i obratimo pažnju na izuzetke, stvaramo totalno drugu sliku. Između američkih Indijaca i studenata sa Aljaske, korišćenje cigareta je mnogo veće nego šest procenata prosečno. Dolazi do priličnih 21 posto. Sve ostale rasne i etničke grupe su svrstane u jednom broju.
So what first seemed like this great success story is actually an indicator of how much work we need to do to reach some of the most marginalized communities.
Dakle,ono što je prvo delovalo kao velika uspešna priča, je zapravo pokazatelj toga koliko moramo da radimo da bismo došli do nekih marginalizovanih zajednica.
In general, when we present data as a scatterplot, the average would usually look like this. And where there are outliers, the typical approach is to undervalue them, to see them as a deviation from the average or from what society thinks is normal.
U suštini, kada predstavljamo podatke dijagramom, prosek obično izgleda ovako. One koji ne spadaju u prosek, tipično je da ih potcenimo, da ih vidimo kao odstupanje od proseka ili od onoga što društvo smatra normalnim.
But I like to call these outliers “lost birds.” It's a nickname I use for something or someone who has gone astray. If you look hard enough, you'll find that these lost birds pop up everywhere.
Ja volim da ih nazovem “izgubljene ptice.” To je nadimak koji volim da koristim za nešto ili nekoga ko je zalutao. Ako dobro pogledate, videćete da ovih “izgubljenih ptica” ima svuda.
Like my mom, for example. She doesn't like being on camera, so this puppet will have to do. She's a soft spoken, hijabi woman who isn't much bigger than this puppet. Because of that, it's easy for some people to underestimate her. But don't let those first impressions fool you.
Moja mama, na primer. Ona ne voli kameru, zato ću morati da koristim ovu lutku. Ona je žena mirnog glasa, nosi hidžab, ne mnogo veća od ove lutke. Zbog toga je mnogi lako potcenjuju. Ali ne dopustite da vas prvi utisak prevari.
“In my generation, we used to listen and accept what they tell us. 'Do what you're told.' But when I got older, I just changed and I started to argue my point and get what I want."
“U mojoj generaciji, slušali smo i prihvatali ono što nam kažu. ‘Radi ono što ti je rečeno.’ Vremenom, kako sam starija, počela sam da se raspravljam da bih dobila ono što želim.”
My mom's a retired doctor, an avid ugly-dress maker, a mother of two and a grandmother of none. Though she spends a fair amount of time trying to speak that into existence,
Mama je doktorka u penziji, strastveni tvorac ružnih haljina, majka dvoje dece, unučiće još nema. Iako troši dosta vremena pokušavajući da te reči obistini,
"I think for every mother, for her daughter, she wants a grandchild."
“Smatram da svaka majka, za svoju ćerku, želi da ima unuče.”
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
"Sorry, Mona."
“Izvini Mona.”
Moving on.
Idemo dalje.
My mom is also a lost bird.
Mama je takođe izgubljena ptica.
"Me?"
“Ja?”
She has, statistically speaking, gone astray.
Ona je, statistički govoreći, zalutala.
"Yeah, but it was a good deviation."
“Da, ali to je bilo dobro odstupanje.”
Back in the late '70s, my mom left Iraq and moved to the UK to further her medical training and practice. She's among the four percent of people born in Iraq who now live abroad. By the early 2000s, just three percent of UK doctors with her experience were non-white and practicing in her speciality. My mom is a lost bird because she is an outlier. She's one of the rare few to leave her home country and even rarer still among her medical peers.
Krajem ’70-ih, mama napusta Irak, preselivši se u UK radi dalje medicinske obuke i prakse. Ona spada među četiri posto ljudi Iraka koji sada žive van zemlje. Početkom 2000-ih, samo tri posto doktora u UK, sličnog iskustva, nisu bili belci, u njenoj struci. Mama je izgubljena ptica zbog toga što ne spada u prosek. Ona je jedna od retkih koji su napustili svoju zemlju i još ređa među svojim medicinskim vršnjacima.
We all think that the people that we love are special, and there is some truth to that. But it’s worth considering the ways that we are all lost birds. Because when we focus on the average and we ignore the outliers, we lose all of the richness and insights that those stories provide.
Svi mi mislimo da su ljudi koje volimo posebni, i ima istine u tome. Vredi uzeti u obzir da smo svi izgubljene ptice. Zbog toga što kad se fokusiramo na prosek i ignorišemo izuzetke, gubimo bogatstvo i uvid u to šta nam pružaju te priče.
But when we dig into the deviations, we get to see the bigger picture. One from a bird's-eye view.
Ali kada tražimo odstupanja, u mogućnosti smo da vidimo širu sliku. Iz ptičije perspektive.