Average can be a misleading figure. If myself, 98 other people and Bill Gates were in a room our average net worth would be about one billion dollars.
Most millennials I have run across are not a lot different than earlier generations, even my very early generation. They are less well read though. Don’t know any that got a trophy they didn’t earn and most were called dumb-asses during their formative years about as often as I was. Those that missed that experience I felt sorry for and tried to catch them up on the dumb-ass emotional feeling.
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We all know that hassle > $$$, so I guess it’s gonna be bitcoin or something. I think you’ll also find that there is a strong co-dependence between Ce and Ho (the only KPI that really matters).
Ce and Csn are either side of the division line so as to avoid introducing a socioeconomic bias, because heaven forbid.
This is all fun and games until you realize the similarity between my BS, intended as such, and the performance function used by your friendly neighborhood HR rep to decide your future.
So what’s normal?
Yes, and he’s on second.
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Average has a maritime origin.
late 15c., “any small charge over freight cost, payable by owners of goods to the master of a ship for his care of the goods,” also “financial loss incurred through damage to goods in transit,” from French avarie “damage to ship,” and Italian avaria. A word from 12c. Mediterranean maritime trade (compare Spanish averia), of uncertain origin; sometimes traced to Arabic 'awariya “damaged merchandise.” Dutch avarij, German haferei, etc., also are from Romanic languages. “Few words have received more etymological investigation” [OED].
Later the more precise term:General Average
The law of general average is a principle of maritime law whereby all stakeholders in a sea venture proportionally share any losses resulting from a voluntary sacrifice of part of the ship or cargo to save the whole in an emergency. For instance, should the crew jettison some cargo overboard to lighten the ship in a storm, the loss would be shared pro rata by both the carrier[1] and the cargo-owners.
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Yes, I deal with claims that are generally Particular Average. There are different adjusters that handle General Average. . . . .
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This is a good definition from Wikipedia Average:
In colloquial language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers.
Context matters:
Different concepts of average are used in different contexts. Often “average” refers to the arithmetic mean, the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are being averaged. In statistics, mean, median, and mode are all known as measures of central tendency, and in colloquial usage any of these might be called an average value .
Many more, rolling average, weighted average etc.
I would put another thought in the analysis.
I always tell my trainees this anecdote:
When thinking about how ‘good’ you are. It doesn’t matter where we fall in this range (above, below, or on par.). As long as you are aware that there exists people who are better than you, people who are not as good as you, and ( a majority ) who are just like you.
For me, it’s not about where the peg fits. It’s the realization that there are other holes to be filled. Where, who and when they are filled is the major concern.
I made some guys think at the last Captains meeting. I asked out loud how many car mechanics they know (and trust) and how many they stay away from.
After they hemmed and hawed it became clear that a majority of car mechanics are average. Great ones are rare. And shitty ones are easy to find.
Then I asked, So who in this room falls into those categories???
Silence. But in reality… Some ‘get it’. Some don’t.
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I think the colloquial usage of “average” as a synonym for “typical” is non-controversial. My advice would of course be to use “typical”, so as to avoid any implications, intentional or otherwise. This is in accordance with the tenet of simple language being harder hitting, ref. Stephen King’s On Writing.
The issue arises when no distinction is made between idiomatic and literal use of the term. There was a newspaper article a while back that referenced a survey in which 70-odd percent of drivers judged their skill to be “above average”, where the writer went on to ridicule the idea as “mathematically impossible”. Little did she understand that the joke was on her, and I’d expect journalists who report on statistical papers to understand as much.
It was this statement that spurred me to make the joke that kicked off this whole thread, being just the sort of off-handed fallacy that warrants… well, a joke. I’m sorry that @Kennebec_Captain suffered the tedium of mounting a defense 
It was really not my intention to put anyone on the spot, I was simply speaking with my tongue stuck deep in my most pedantic cheek.
Also, I find the idea of a half-truism conceptually interesting. Now I’m done being serious, at least for a bit.