A stunning result tends to be followed by a more average one, with nothing really changed

Francis Galton noticed that unusually tall parents tend to have slightly shorter children, and unusually short parents slightly taller ones — height 'regresses' toward the average. The same statistical pattern explains why a rookie's stunning debut season, or a remedy taken right as symptoms peak, usually looks less impressive the second time, even with no real change at all.

— Francis Galton, Regression Towards Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature — Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1886

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