Why is median better than mean for a typical salary?  In a
previous post, I commented that PayScale's Salary Survey
preferentially reports typical salaries based on the median
instead of the arithmetic mean (average).  Why is the median
better than the mean for measuring "typical" values? The best
way to understand what is wrong with the mean is to look at how
both behave in answering a simple question: how well have
Stephon Marbury's Lincoln High School basketball teammates done
in their careers in the last 10 years?  I started thinking again
about the difference between mean and median while listening to
an NPR story about Stephon Marbury. For those who don't know, he
is a 29 year-old from Coney Island, New York, who plays
professional basketball for the New York Knicks.  Imagine
Stephon Marbury went back last year to meet with 9 teammates on
the 10th anniversary of their winning a high school basketball
championship. You might ask, "Where are they now? Have they done
well? Did they turn what they learned p