To everyone saying “rule of threes” with regard to Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett: there is no rule. It’s all selection bias, and nobody, no matter how well trained, is immune, because our brains are not computers.
Thank you Stephanie. I’m going to point a few people around the office to this post-haste. Sick to death of hearing this.
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Stephanie Z
June 26, 2009 at 4:28 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
They’ll love you for making them think, you know. People always do.
jthibeault
June 26, 2009 at 4:33 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well… I’m actually copping out on this personally. I’ve tried to explain it to two people now, and came away frustrated. I’m hoping YOU’LL be the one that makes ‘em think. :)
Dan J
June 26, 2009 at 4:43 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ll try embedding this one here:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11N-BD1aBo0
This is one of the reasons people continue to think the number three is magic!
jthibeault
June 26, 2009 at 6:59 pm CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
While I’ll admit Schoolhouse Rock is awesome, I have to take issue with their examples of “magical threes” — specifically “heart, mind and body” — the first two are subsets of the third! And “man and woman and baby” — what about extra kids? Or if the baby has a problem or is stillborn? Where’s the magic in that? And the mention of the “trinity” while only in passing obviously refers to the “Holy Trinity”, or is at least a throwback.
The triangle thing is a good point, being it’s the geometric 2-D shape you can create with the least number of lines that has an actual volume.
Also, the only rule of three that works, to my mind, is in repeating a joke. Jokes are only funny if you say them once, or repeat them three times during the course of a given speech/stand-up routine/episode. If you do it just twice, the second one falls flat. Unless it’s a variation on the theme, of course. So that’s not even a proper “rule”.
Bah! A pox on magical thinking altogether.
pod
June 27, 2009 at 6:42 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hey, is this you? http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/06/i_get_email_37.php
jthibeault
June 27, 2009 at 11:26 am CDT (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sure is, Pod. You were just ahead of the game. And it’s actually fortunate Akismet thought your comment was spam. :D