When in doubt, disaggregate:
"The typical American buys precisely one book a year ... Of course, this isn't true, because when it comes to books, there is no typical American. There are a lot of Americans who buy zero books for pleasure each year. And then there are people like me who buy 400. The average is irrelevant."
This didn't change my thinking. I wasn't ruthlessly chasing the average anything. I just had a certain discomfort every time my brother said, "Yeah, but is the average person going to get that?" Or every time my boss said, "But what's the average person going to think of this?" I had an instinct to distrust their way of looking things, but I couldn't enunciate it. That's why I'm not Seth Godin. (That's also why I read everything I can by him.)
