Education and the workforce: I think these two things go together in terms of human potential.

The Age of Average gave us a lot. Take clothing: We've all benefited remarkably from large, medium and small sizes making things affordable and available, but when it really counts - the wedding gown and the pressurized fighter pilot suit - it's bespoke all the way.

It's fine to pretend that people are one-dimensional, like in body size; the problem comes when you forget that you are just pretending.

That was one of my most surprising discoveries when I dug into the history of average-ism: When you actually get the data, it rarely captures anyone. Which then begs the question, why are we using this as a reference standard for human beings?

We need to develop people rather than process them.

I care deeply about opportunity and fairness, because I grew up really poor.

The whole idea of timing tests is a century old, from a scientist who thought speed and ability were tightly correlated, which they are not.