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.
看著數據,我們腦中 往往想的是它的平均。 平均身高、平均工資、 平均花在視訊的小時數。 我們很容易專注於世上這些 簡潔的小摘要。
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.
但這個世界其實 比平均所顯示出的還要混亂。 所以我反而專注在離群值上。 這些可以更好地反應 我們稱為災難的生活型態。 他們更可以提供給我們: 對於我們了解的領域 不一樣的視角。
[Am I Normal? with Mona Chalabi]
〔我平凡嗎?莫娜·查拉比〕
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.
拿青少年和菸的數據來看。 根據疾病管制與預防中心, 在1997與2019年間, 美國高中生抽菸的比例 從 36% 掉到 6%。 看似是一場大勝利, 但如果分析數據,看著那些離群值, 就大大不同了。 在美洲印第安人 和阿拉斯加原住民學生中, 抽菸的習慣遠高於那 6% 的平均。 是相當大的 21%。 所有其他種族的比率都在個位數。
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.
所以乍看這個似乎成功的故事 其實僅僅表示我們還要努力多少 才能觸及到一些最邊緣的族群。
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.
一般來說,使用散佈圖時, 平均會長這樣。 而如果離群值存在, 通用的手段是低估它們, 低估它們, 認為它們是平均中小小的偏差 或是社會中的不正常。
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.
但我喜歡叫它們「丟失的鳥」。 這是我為那些偏離者所取的綽號。 如果你仔細查看, 就會發現丟失的鳥存在於各個角落。
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.
我媽媽就是一個例子。 她不喜歡入鏡, 因此用這個娃娃代替。 她是一個輕聲細語,罩著面紗, 不比我手上娃娃大多少的女人。 因此,其他人很容易低估她。 但別讓那些既定印象愚弄你。
“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."
「在我們那個時代, 我們會服從他們所告訴我們的一切。 『照你聽到的做。』 但隨著我長大, 我隨之改變,更開始爭辯我的觀點, 也得到我所想要的。」
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,
我媽是退休醫生, 狂熱地縫製醜醜的女裝, 有兩個孩子,沒有孫子。 她時常抓著這個點不放,說:
"I think for every mother, for her daughter, she wants a grandchild."
「每個母親都會想要孫子。」
(Laughter)
〔笑聲〕
"Sorry, Mona."
「抱歉,莫娜。」
Moving on.
繼續。
My mom is also a lost bird.
我媽也是一隻丟失的鳥。
"Me?"
「我嗎?」
She has, statistically speaking, gone astray.
她走上了一條不太一樣的路。
"Yeah, but it was a good deviation."
「那是一個好的標準差。」
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.
回想七十年代, 我媽離開了伊拉克,移居到英國 以增強自己的醫療練習及技術。 她是 4% 出生在伊拉克 而移居國外其中的一個。 在兩千年初期, 在英國,和她同樣經驗與執業領域的 醫生只有 3% 不是白種人。 她是一隻丟失的鳥,也是離群值。 她是少數離開出生地的, 更是少數後來成為醫療人士的。
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.
我們總認為自己愛的人最是特別, 那是有原因的。 不妨換個想法, 我們都是迷途的鳥兒, 因為專注於平均值、忽略離群值, 就失去那些故事背後的 豐富層次和獨特見解。
But when we dig into the deviations, we get to see the bigger picture. One from a bird's-eye view.
但如果深掘標準差 便得以看見更整體的觀點。 一個俯看的視角。