Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

The Rule of 12 Bonks

This math helps us answer the question, “How many partners should I have before I settle down?” The background is quite interesting: Despite high divorce rates, when it comes to falling in love, we refuse to take advice. If you were buying a DVD player and you were told there was a 50 percent chance it would break down, you would really think hard before buying it, wouldn’t you? You certainly wouldn’t buy the first one you came across, and you would probably ask advice from friends. It seems like when it comes to marriage, we’re acting all crazy. This mathematician [Peter Todd from the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Germany] said, hold on, maybe there are some mathematical equations that make us act this way. He thought, in this borderless world where we have an almost unlimited number of potential partners, how many partners should we test before we settle down? The math showed a very revealing pattern. If you use this simple rule, it will give you very good results: Test a sample of 12 partners. Then, after you get to 12, continue testing but take the next best partner that comes along (it could be partner number 13 or partner number 40). Todd found that doing this will give you a 75 percent chance of picking someone with the qualities that you want.

Link

you’re ready for marriage :P