RobinZ comments on Rationality Quotes September 2012 - Less Wrong
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Anonymous
Not always, since:
Des McHale
In other words, the average of a distribution is not necessarily the most probable value.
In other words: expect Lady Mode, not Lady Mean.
Don't expect her, either. In Russian Roulette, the mode is that you don't die, and indeed that's the outcome for most people who play it. You should, however, expect that there's a very large chance of instadeath, and if you were to play a bunch of games in a row, that (relatively uncommon) outcome would almost certainly kill you.
(A similar principle applies to things like stock market index funds: the mode doesn't matter when all you care about is the sum of the stocks.)
The real lesson is this: always expect Lady PDF.
Not to be a bore but it does say "Lady Average" not "Sir or Madam Average".