50-50-90 Rule

This particular rule was made popular by Joe Soucheray, a radio commentator and host of a well thought out set of rules for men and women called Garage Logic in St. Paul, but I believe Paul Harvey said it as well. It's called the 50-50-90 rule and it goes something like this: guys, (and this is a rules for guys only) if you have a fifty percent chance of getting something right, you'll make the wrong choice ninety percent of the time. I've also heard it as eighty percent but that's the absolute lowest percentage. So, how does it work?

Let's say your better half sends you to the local five and dime to buy a loaf of common ordinary bread. After your cart is brimming over (because you rarely go to a store and walk out with only what you went to buy) you get to the aisle-long bread section. Of course with so many varieties of bread, you're in a bigger quandary now than before you went into the store in the first place. In the bread aisle, there is white, wheat, 12 grain, 7 grain, whole wheat, honey wheat, cracked wheat, potato bread, bagels, English Muffins, sourdough, and a whole host of others. If you think about it, the choice really is really between white and wheat. Save the 12 grain for when your wife is with you in the supermarket. You do not like wheat but she does. Since you have others to feed in the family, such as your six little munchkins, you have to consider them into the equation as well. You know for a fact that they won't eat the brown wheat bread, but your wife likes the wheat bread. What do you do? You can make a case for a white loaf since that's what you and the kids will eat. Wheat bread is also a good option because that is what your wife will chow down on, so you do the logical thing (no, don't call her on her cell from the store). You splurge and buy both. In fact, since white is cheaper, you get a couple of loaves.

Wheat Bread

Of course, your wife will not be pleased that you spent money on both kinds of bread (and that you bought two of the kind she didn't want you to buy in the first place), but she's not the one trying to be part of the ten percent who gets it right. And as you can see, you didn't get it right because you chose both.

So you had a 50-50 chance of getting it right, but the odds were clearly stacked against you. You tried, but you made the wrong choice.

Better luck next time.

50-50-90 Rule

Mort writes for a living and has a knack for stating the painfully obvious. You might know him, though, as The Facebook Guy. He does better with making the wrong decision 80% of the time.

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