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Mar 10, 2016
This article is part of a series called Classic TLNT.

Editor’s Note: As I wind down my stint as Editor of TLNT — I’m leaving in the next few months — I wanted to share some of my favorite TLNT posts. Here’s one from July 4, 2012. 

Last weekend, The New York Times published an article with an intriguing premise that seems to pop up in different forms on occasion here at TLNT: that the notion of being “average” or “ordinary” has become derogatory.

It’s similar to the premise that Derek Irvine and others have made here about how you need “B” players in your organization because “these are the people who grind out the work that makes it possible for your stars to shine.”

The NYT article digs into the thinking that the Baby Boomer generation (and those that followed them) have been taught that everyone needs to be special even if they really aren’t so much so. And, it raises the question: why is it a problem if we’re just average?

Is there room to be average?

Author Alina Tugend asks:

This article is part of a series called Classic TLNT.