Two cafés can have the same average waiting time and feel completely different. The missing ingredient is variation.
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The average is only the beginning
Imagine one café where every order takes five minutes. At another, half take one minute and half take nine. Both average five minutes, but the second offers a much less predictable experience. These are imaginary examples, but the distinction turns up everywhere.
The mean gives us a useful centre. The median describes the middle observation. A measure of spread tells us how far individual experiences can wander from that centre. Together, they offer a richer story.
A small habit worth keeping
When you see an average, ask: what does the distribution look like? Are a few extreme values doing most of the work? A simple dot plot often reveals what a single headline number conceals.
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