What are your favorite rules of thumb?
Asked by
Jeruba (
56106
)
August 11th, 2009
“A rule of thumb is a homemade recipe for making a guess. It is an easy-to-remember guide that falls somewhere between a mathematical formula and a shot in the dark. A farmer, for instance, knows to plant his corn when oak leaves are the size of squirrels’ ears. An economics professor knows from sad experience that inviting more than 25 percent of the guests for a university dinner party from the economics department ruins the conversation. Rules of thumb are a kind of tool. They help you appraise a problem or situation. They make it easier to consider the subtleties of the topic at hand; they give you a feel for a subject.” —RulesOfThumb.org
What are yours?
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19 Answers
The higher the amount of money spent on cat toys increases the likelihood that her favorite play objects will be crumpled wads of paper and the plastic rings from gallon containers of milk.
Never fails.
The more something needs to be subsidized by the government to survive the more it sucks.
2 thumbs are better than one?
Do unto others BEFORE they do unto you.
Either that, or Life sucks. Get used to it
“Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else” – Dave Ramsey
”...To thine own self be true,
Then it must follow as the night the day,
Thou canst not be false to any man…”
from Polonius’ advice to Hamlet, and not bad advice, either, coming, as it did, from an old coot…
Rule of thumb originated from when men could beat women. As long as the stick was the width of the mans thumb. Learned that from Boondock Saints.
Nobody gives you power – you just take it.
You cant control what others say and do, only your own words and actions.
The origin of the word always struck me as funny. So my favorite “Rule Of Thumb” is to never beat your wife with a stick thicker than your thumb.
My favorite has always been:
‘Measure twice, cut once’
And it can most definitely apply outside of carpentry and home improvement.
My dad’s advice: “Find something you love to do, then find someone stupid enough to pay you to do it.”
@hex That’s a circumcision joke waiting to happen.
The better the writer, the more he or she will appreciate editing. And vice versa.
You must love yourself in order to love someone else.
Whenever there is any doubt… there is no doubt.
I classify all todos with the following rule of thumb:
1) urgent & important -> focus and do your best
2) not urgent & important -> store in your personal log (which you check regularly)
3) urgent & not important -> be pragmatic, i.e. 20% of your time gets you 80% results already
4) not urgent & not important -> ignore
I once heard someone ask a man leading training for teachers what the ideal class size was. He responded, “Give me a class of any size, and on the first day let me kick out three kids. That is the ideal class size.” His point was that discipline has less to do with class size than with consequences and follow through.
The worst vice is advice.
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