The Difference Between Top and Bottom.

This could be theory and practice, but also most to least in ability or performance. The distribution of variance is a factor in many things. On the roads the learner driver is on the same road as the world champion, in the same queue going nowhere!

When you look at the law it mostly says what you would think it should say. When I have covered law for moving and handling, first aid and other areas there is always a logic to the law. You have responsibilities and so do others; to look after yourself and others. If you do that you are unlikely to have problems. The gap between the written down law and the average persons understanding and opinion is massive. What beliefs and opinions people operate under can amaze. There is a massive gap in understanding, which some exploit. An element for the legal industry is to reduce the gap of belief closer to actual (qui bono). In Health & Safety from 1974 there was a simplifying approach for ease of understanding and guess what; deaths and major accidents fell massively in the workplace. Other crimes have fallen but not due to simplification.

General understanding in most areas has a similar gap from the expert to the lay person.

There is a similar gap in health from the elite, those that do the recommended to the vast majority who keep the health service busy and to the highest performers. First is exercise, only 1 in 10 exercise enough (3*20mins a week or equivalent) and half the population not at all. 3 out of 4 eat unhealthy and most do not sleep enough. Less people are under the addictive effects of nicotine now, but the effects of alcohol are still large. This can of course be under the influence, withdrawal or the longer term effects. There are also medicines and illegal/legal self medication. All of these effect body and brain and degrade performance including awareness of this degradation. So I go to work and deal with overweight pre diabetics in sleep debt, drug filled people trying to make decisions. These decisions are rarely to a high level!

There is a general ignorance to what is possible, that is effective or anything long term. The average person is unhealthy, mentally unbalanced and ignorant of these points.

My problem is I know and feel the benefits of exercise and activity, of a healthy diet and consistent good nights sleep. Limited drug intake of some caffeine and some alcohol admittedly. I use this healthy body and clear head to do some thinking and planing ahead and with the general aim of good practice. Am I massively above average. Well yes after all the average is very low. The down side is others do not have these benefits and I (and you) have to deal with them. How do you get the average person to understand anything complicated or counter intuitive or long term. They need their next fix of some drug(s), some sleep and their body is crying out for stimulation, nutrients and rest all at once. So they have no understanding of higher levels of anything whether sport, legal, or even an awareness of the gap between them and the superhuman levels. Now this is not the only problem. The real problem is to get them to understanding healthy and a basic organised life by perhaps trying it and like the ex-smoker that discovers taste, and the alcohol abuser who discovers single binocular vision they might encounter understanding of what is actually going on. It is not the case for most to correct vision with corrective lenses, it is to stop clouding the vision in the first place.

You would think that most people would not give themselves mental and physical disabilities when they see the problems for those who are born or have an accident and have disabilities.

Its important to know who you are speaking to and the factors that effect any communication or action. Decision making and listening and thinking are effected by the blood that can be sugar levels (hyper/hypo) not just for diabetics. Alcohol, nicotine, medicine levels or timing including withdrawal, even of caffeine gives you the shakes. A full bladder creates urgency in thought as well as action. These are all immediate factors that also tend to happen a lot so become chronic factors that increase emotional decisions with cognitive bias filled reasoning. These chronic factors reduce the use of logic, maths and science knowledge and consideration. Favouring biased, superstitious and flawed thinking.

Reason with logical, mathematical and science truths requires practice, it is never finished or perfected. Critical thinking needs to be taught and encouraged and given time to work. It’s not natural as the evolved human brain has changed over millennia to cope with different challenges (Running away from predators, getting food and constant crisis). To make better more effective decisions and actions a different approach has to be used or machines take over sooner!

Such is the many variances in ability and experience that the gap between the most and the least can be too large to see. With IQ the difference between a top 5% and a bottom 5% is massive and in fact a person with a top 5% IQ may find something easy that an average person dose not even know exists. An example from sport is in grappling and Brazilian Jiu jitsu where a black belt can do pretty much whatever they like with a white belt with their 5 or more years of study and practice. It is only when you achieve a black belt (I have not got one in Jiu Jitsu) that you realise that it’s just a mastery of the basics still a major achievement. The but is the example of Marcello Garcia where several black belt competitors have been quoted as saying they felt like a white belt when training with Marcello Garcia. The gap from white belt to black and then again from black belt to the best (probably of all time) is hard to even visualise without black belt skills and experience. The same relationships exist with academic subject specialists to the general public. Some areas are obvious like height the under 5 feet to the over 6 and a half feet tall is easy to see other aspects are harder to see let alone comprehend.

Of course in a democracy every one has one vote each so the world champion has the same as a member of the public unaware of anything. This is an issue for getting quality decisions and actions. If I am on a mat with Marcello Garcia I do what he says is best, I go with his ability and experience, I don’t insist on having equality because I don’t have it. By all accounts he will be nice and then he will take your back and make you tap then let go when you do. Then he will help and advise and then still he will take your back and submit you. But when you role with another beginner you can get some success, gradually improving your understanding and skills.