Structuring the operation that way will give Mediocre the ability to be nimble and try different things out — something that it wasn't really able to do at Woot.
Yet, compared with Napoleon's other generals, Junot was a man of mediocre ability.
But, as Mosier points out, no one of mediocre ability could have taught himself algebra, as Grant did when a teenager.
Until now, most researchers believed that the average fund produced mediocre performance because managers had subpar ability to pick stocks.
The children's literary critic Margery Fisher likened Blyton's books to "slow poison", and Jean E. Sutcliffe of the BBC's schools broadcast department wrote of Blyton's ability to churn out "mediocre material", noting that "her capacity to do so, amounts to genius ... anyone else would have died of boredom long ago".
Yet, what has given "S.N.L". the ability to be at once mediocre and vital is the fact that it still airs live on network television.
For basketball analysts it means the high-volume scorer who lacks the ability to sink shots at a mediocre rate is likely overrated by all but a percentage of statisticians.
"The public's ability to ascertain the difference between good versus mediocre has ratcheted up," Mr. Coraine said.
Tocqueville took an overly harsh view of Andrew Jackson, dismissing him as "a man of violent temperament and mediocre abilities," ignoring his charisma and his political abilities.
Johnson was given the cold shoulder by professional football in part because of a traditional bias by the N.F.L. against Ivy League players; many scouts believe players in the conference have mediocre abilities.
