Jesse reads an excerpt from the book The End of Average by Todd Rose. In the late 1940's the Air Force had a dangerous problem on its hands -- aircraft of all kinds were malfunctioning and crashing at alarming rates. The Air Force brought in scientist Lt Gilbert S Daniels to diagnose the problem. Daniels discovered that the Air Force had designed cockpits based on thousands of physical measurements taken from its ranks of pilots, then averaged. Daniels ascertained that despite the rigor and breadth of the measurements, not a single active pilot in the Air Force actually matched up with all the averages. In short, the Air Force had designed their planes around an average pilot that didn't actually exist, causing pilots to have trouble controlling their planes.
We can take a lesson from Lt. Daniels discovery when it comes to our budgets. It's tempting to come up with an average for each line item, and compare your budget to someone else's or perhaps even a regional or national "average." Designing your budget around averages may not actually fit your life, and, going back to Episode 420, may leave your budget rigid and inflexible.
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A Sample of Interesting, Joyful Spending
YNABers Share Their New Years Resolutions
I Love Money
A Clarification on Goal Failures
Goals Are Awesome
Merry Christmas from YNAB
Invest In Preparedness, Not Prediction
A Quote from F.W. Boreham
Ask Jesse: Selling a Rental Property, Buying a Car, and Pausing Retirement to Save?
Giving the Old Bird to Money
It Has Nothing, and Everything, to Do with Spending
You Didn't Quit. To Every Season...
Building Habits: Four of Them, Actually
BONUS: Goodbye Mint, Hello YNAB
Joy Is a Three
It's You All the Way Down
Ask Jesse: Airlines are Banks, Better Money Habits, and Fast Talking
Ask Jesse: Credit Card Rebels, Banks, and Emergency Funds
Guilty on All Counts
Shift Your Spending Into High Gear
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