Another way of seeing it is to consider sports teams. In any sport, there will be teams that are good at some things and not at others. The teams that are ranked highest will not show a lot of differences in abilities. They do well in most categories. The lower the standard deviation of their ability in each category, the more balanced and consistent they are. Teams with a higher standard deviation, however, will be less predictable. A team that is usually bad in most categories will have a low standard deviation. A team that is usually good in most categories will also have a low standard deviation. However, a team with a high standard deviation might be the type of team that scores many points (strong offense) but also lets the other team score many points (weak defense). 