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![[image loading]](http://www.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/statistics/normal_curve.gif)
There's a kid at my school that goes by the name Greg. I don't see him that often or know much about him but...
word on the street, he goes by the name, Normie.
I think it was some kids on the baseball team that started it but basically, Greg's nickname is Normie because he's too "normal". I asked my friend Jon (who's on the baseball team) about it, and he's like, "yeah, we call him Normie cuz he's just a normal kid."
My first reaction was, "what the hell, how can someone be too normal?"
But when I thought about it and applied some concepts from AP stats to the situation and came to the striking conclusion that yes, it is possible to be too normal.
Based on the normal distribution, or bell, curve, approximately 68% of the population falls within 1 standard deviation of the average. But what if you're so normal that you're less than 0.1 or 0.05 standard deviations from the mean? Or what if (gasp), you ARE the mean?
It's scary how normal some people are, I mean seriously, what the hell is this, Phantom Tollbooth?
  
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Pretty neat. But I'm curious what exactly being too normal entails. What does this Greg fellow do that makes him so normal?
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so can u describe more about him? how is he so normal?
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If its so wierd that he is normal than how can he be normal at all?!?!?!
BOOM! That was your brain exploding.
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to be normal would be average.. so he must comply with certain rules
a vision of normal would be
he is not great at anything.
he like normal stuff no weird music.
he hits on girls and has bad luck but once in a while he gets some.
he has a "normal" father and mother and 1 brother family.
he likes what the mayority of people like.
he drinks on weekends and the has smoked some pot but dosent regularly.
there really isnt any normal by any standards. you must be some kid who hasent found out that there is no "Normal"
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Canada8033 Posts
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By being too normal I assume you mean he very greatly fits within the commonly accepted standards and expectations the society in which he lives in holds for someone of his gender, age, and background. If he fits these qualities, then I suppose it would be very possible for someone to be "too normal."
Being normal is boring though. 
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I don't get what "too" is supposed to mean here. If nobody but him sits on the mean, then maybe there's a case for applying that label on the grounds that he is more "average" than everyone else. But I doubt that's the case. And in any event, how does one take the mean of a group of people? Too many parameters. And what group of people are you averaging over? World population or your high school (making an assumption here)? Seems like a pointless excuse to label.
Edit to add that "too" usually implies excessiveness. In what way is any degree of "normality" excessive?
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um you needed AP stats to figure out if someone doenst deviate very little from mean, he might be considered normal?
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What headhunter said.
So the guy must be completely average in every way, average in statistical perception. He simply doesn't get out of the line in any way.
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On April 19 2010 08:09 allluckysevens7777 wrote:
I don't get what "too" is supposed to mean here. If nobody but him sits on the mean, then maybe there's a case for applying that label on the grounds that he is more "average" than everyone else. But I doubt that's the case. And in any event, how does one take the mean of a group of people? Too many parameters. And what group of people are you averaging over? World population or your high school (making an assumption here)? Seems like a pointless excuse to label.
Edit to add that "too" usually implies excessiveness. In what way is any degree of "normality" excessive?
I assume the definition of "too" used in this context is represented by the second definition I found on dictionary.com.
2. to an excessive extent or degree; beyond what is desirable, fitting, or right: too sick to travel.
Just personal thoughts here, but I suppose being "too normal" would define a case in which remaining excessively in line with means and averages eventually becomes detrimental to the overall value of his life.
Edit: Wow, why are we going this in-depth about a random kid from the OP's school? Haha. It's fun though, anyhow. 
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if you are "too normal" then you are clearly messed up.
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On April 19 2010 08:04 HeadhunteR wrote:
to be normal would be average.. so he must comply with certain rules
a vision of normal would be
he is not great at anything.
he like normal stuff no weird music.
he hits on girls and has bad luck but once in a while he gets some.
he has a "normal" father and mother and 1 brother family.
he likes what the mayority of people like.
he drinks on weekends and the has smoked some pot but dosent regularly.
there really isnt any normal by any standards. you must be some kid who hasent found out that there is no "Normal"
Yeah, that's actually really accurate
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Brag post in disguise? YOU BE THE JUDGE!
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Baa?21244 Posts
Slightly off-topic but semi-related, watch Idiocracy, about how a guy who was chosen because he is the mean for a cryogenics experiment ends up the smartest guy in the future lol.
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Well... we're all normal to the ground!
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Yeah if you're uninteresting not funny or otherwise bland... It's very possible for people to describe you as "too normal".
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Korea (South)11591 Posts
On April 19 2010 08:44 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
Slightly off-topic but semi-related, watch Idiocracy, about how a guy who was chosen because he is the mean for a cryogenics experiment ends up the smartest guy in the future lol.
hilarious movie
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There is no such thing as normal, beacuse what is "normal" is in itself subjective and differs between cultures and individuals. What may be normal for one may not be normal for another.
The term "normal" is overrated anyway.
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Instead of normal, don't your friends mean boring?
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his name isnt bob so i think not!
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There is only one normal. If it was anything different than "normal" then it would no longer be orthogonal to the line. Dummies
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Another word for normal is average.
Don't be normal.
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You are assuming that humans can be described by a normal model.
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well if you learned calculus, you should know the chance of being on exactly ONE point of the distribution (ie. THE MEAN) is 0. (well its a limit...)
everything else are just estimations.
edit: thought you said AP calculus... AP stats is a joke lol, you don't even understand the mechanics of the normal distribution
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way too many smartasses in this thread, and yes you can definitely be "too normal" i've met those people!
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So if he's too normal, and according to your bell curve thing, about 68% of the population is average..only 2% of the population falls under the extremes, so then that means:
Everyone who calls him "normie" is being 'random', therefore reinforcing the normal-ness of their behavior. The otherwise "too normal" person is the very objective person; the one who tells the teacher "I'm going to be a cop when I grow up!"
In other words, quoting some famous transcendentalist: "How should one act in public?" What if the too normal kid just doesn't know what to do with his little friends and just follows blindly?.. like everyone else ;P what if he can't help it? I can't help it that I am random because I'd rather be random than boring. What if the normal kid can't be random?..
Yea, we're digging into this deeper than we should... hahaha
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On April 19 2010 12:03 FonzeXD wrote:
So if he's too normal, and according to your bell curve thing, about 68% of the population is average..only 2% of the population falls under the extremes, so then that means:
Everyone who calls him "normie" is being 'random', therefore reinforcing the normal-ness of their behavior. The otherwise "too normal" person is the very objective person; the one who tells the teacher "I'm going to be a cop when I grow up!"
In other words, quoting some famous transcendentalist: "How should one act in public?" What if the too normal kid just doesn't know what to do with his little friends and just follows blindly?.. like everyone else ;P what if he can't help it? I can't help it that I am random because I'd rather be random than boring. What if the normal kid can't be random?..
Yea, we're digging into this deeper than we should... hahaha
its not "his bell curve thing" and there is no "too normal" unless this "normal" behavior is not the majority at all.
you can't be singled out for being too normal lol... doesn't even make sense.
"your too much like everyone else, we are gonna give only YOU a nickname."
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My feeling is that you can make that kind of bell curve for pretty much every single character trait, and they're all independant. So you can be, for example, normal in height, above normal in baseball ability, and below normal in shoe size. There's so many character traits, almost everybody has SOMETHING about them that's extremely abnormal. If someone really was normal in every single way, then that in itself is very abnormal.
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On April 19 2010 09:41 Groslouser wrote:
Instead of normal, don't your friends mean boring?
thats what i thought i thought at first
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On April 19 2010 13:56 Luddite wrote:
My feeling is that you can make that kind of bell curve for pretty much every single character trait, and they're all independant. So you can be, for example, normal in height, above normal in baseball ability, and below normal in shoe size. There's so many character traits, almost everybody has SOMETHING about them that's extremely abnormal. If someone really was normal in every single way, then that in itself is very abnormal.
If you imagine these traits to be linearly independent vectors, that stretch in the positive direction for above normal, and in the negative direction for below normal, and you imagine a person to be the sum of all these traits, then you could define normal to be the sum with minimal length, ie the zero vector.
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On April 19 2010 13:56 Luddite wrote:
My feeling is that you can make that kind of bell curve for pretty much every single character trait, and they're all independant. So you can be, for example, normal in height, above normal in baseball ability, and below normal in shoe size. There's so many character traits, almost everybody has SOMETHING about them that's extremely abnormal. If someone really was normal in every single way, then that in itself is very abnormal.
how can height and shoe size be independent? :S
and are you sure your logic is correct?
someone with average height, shoe size, baseball ability, personality... is, by your logic, abnormal?
there will always be more people with "average" of everything than the next person who has an outlier in either of those traits.
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![[image loading]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Surface_normal_illustration.png/556px-Surface_normal_illustration.png)
? That work?
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i don't get it, is the red suppose to represent a 3D normal distribution?
it makes no sense. normal dist is not 3d, and why would anything be outside of a distribution??????
this question is based on bad logic and "Normie" the more I try to respond the dumber I feel =/
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On April 19 2010 21:27 SkylineSC wrote:Show nested quote +On April 19 2010 13:56 Luddite wrote:
My feeling is that you can make that kind of bell curve for pretty much every single character trait, and they're all independant. So you can be, for example, normal in height, above normal in baseball ability, and below normal in shoe size. There's so many character traits, almost everybody has SOMETHING about them that's extremely abnormal. If someone really was normal in every single way, then that in itself is very abnormal. how can height and shoe size be independent? :S and are you sure your logic is correct? someone with average height, shoe size, baseball ability, personality... is, by your logic, abnormal? there will always be more people with "average" of everything than the next person who has an outlier in either of those traits.
of course somethings usually go together, but they can still be different, and there's soooooo many different traits. Like "personality" isn't one trait, it's thousands of different traits, so i don't really know what a "normal" personality is.
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On April 19 2010 16:23 Kwidowmaker wrote:Show nested quote +On April 19 2010 13:56 Luddite wrote:
My feeling is that you can make that kind of bell curve for pretty much every single character trait, and they're all independant. So you can be, for example, normal in height, above normal in baseball ability, and below normal in shoe size. There's so many character traits, almost everybody has SOMETHING about them that's extremely abnormal. If someone really was normal in every single way, then that in itself is very abnormal. If you imagine these traits to be linearly independent vectors, that stretch in the positive direction for above normal, and in the negative direction for below normal, and you imagine a person to be the sum of all these traits, then you could define normal to be the sum with minimal length, ie the zero vector.
you could but that would be stupid. Why would a guy with, for example, a height of 1 meter and an IQ of 200 be considered normal?
you could sum the square of their lengths though.
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thedeadhaji
39489 Posts
What makes Greg unique is all that matters. Convication, principals, dreams, etc.
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There's no such thing as normal. No one is normal.
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Like "personality" isn't one trait, it's thousands of different traits
quite a bold statement...
one of the most accepted measurement of personality is the BFI and thats big five inventory. so by that definition there can of course be average for each of the five characteristics. so someone with an "average personality" would be middle of the road for all 5 of those characteristics.
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'Normal' is a very vague term but:
On April 19 2010 07:42 MourningWould wrote:
It's scary how normal some people are, I mean seriously, what the hell is this, Phantom Tollbooth?
Blog gets a five for name dropping awesome book.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7549/1271287093808.png)
