Book SummaryThe End of Average, by Todd Rose

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The End of Average

If you’re like most people, you’ve been judged in comparison to the average for your entire life. In school, your performance was defined by your difference from the average student. At work, your manager might judge your performance with benchmarks calibrated to the average worker.

We’re so accustomed to using averages that we neglect to question whether they’re actually useful. In The End of Average, Todd Rose argues that when we use averages to judge people, we typically arrive at inaccurate and harmful conclusions. Rose contends that our blind faith in the average as a tool to understand people has led to deep-seated structural problems in society—problems that encourage conformity and diminish our unique...

The End of Average Summary We Need Individuality in the Education System

Rose asserts that one of the areas of society in which judging individuals with averages has done the most damage is the modern education system. Rather than give each student what they individually need to learn the most, we give them a standardized experience that forces them to conform or fail. As a result, students and society both suffer.

Let’s discuss three ways that schools fail to treat students as unique individuals, consequently limiting their potential.

Failure #1: Schools Are Designed to Find Intelligence—Not Create It

First, Rose argues that schools fail to nurture students as individuals because they were designed to achieve an entirely different purpose: sorting students. Rather than educate each student to help them reach their full potential, as it’s ostensibly supposed to do, our education system is designed to identify and support “gifted” students. That is, it allocates better opportunities to children with the preexisting potential to learn how to solve complex problems. In turn, the system provides less support to those without such potential.

This model has its roots in the beginning of the 20th century, when early American factories...

The End of Average Summary We Need Individuality in the Workplace

In addition to harming the education system, Rose says, averages do significant damage to society when people abuse them in the workplace.

Rose contends that many commonplace business practices at modern companies around the world also follow an outdated model. Instead of seeking uniquely talented individuals, factory managers in the late 19th century sought to maximize efficiency by creating systems that could produce consistent results using workers of “average” skill. They created standardized assembly line-style processes that the average worker could execute consistently without any unique skills. Then, factory managers declared these processes to be the model of perfect efficiency and prohibited workers from deviating in any way.

Because many modern organizations follow this same factory model, we have a system that treats workers more like robots than people. Companies expect their employees to follow instructions to the letter, resisting or punishing them if they try to devise their own ways to solve problems. Rose asserts that this is a lose-lose situation: Workers feel dehumanized and unfulfilled, and businesses miss out on the profit potential of their...

Shortform Exercise: Use Your Individuality in the Workplace

Rose contends that if employees can use their individual strengths at work, they’ll be more productive and fulfilled. Consider your unique strengths and imagine how you could use them to make a difference in the workplace.

In what ways are you different from the other employees at your workplace? Recount your personal history and explain how it makes you unique. (For example, perhaps you were born in Columbia, making you the only member of your team at work who speaks fluent Spanish.)