I recently learned about something called the 37% rule, which sounds less like a mathematical theory and more like a suspicious diet plan.
Apparently, it comes from the optimal stopping problem, which is a very polite, academic way of saying:
“How long should I keep scrolling before I commit to something and stop ruining my own life?”
The rule goes like this. Reject the first 37% of options. Then pick the next one that’s better than all the previous ones.
Simple. Elegant. Slightly unhinged when applied to real life.
Naturally, people have decided to apply this to dating.
Because nothing says romance like turning your love life into a spreadsheet.
“Sorry, you were emotionally available and kind, but unfortunately you fell into my exploratory rejection phase.”
But I would like to propose a better use case.
Dumplings!!
Stay with me.
Let’s say I am on a sacred, spiritual journey, also known as dumpling hunting. I plan to try 100 dumpling spots in my lifetime (a conservative estimate).
According to the 37% rule, I must:
1. Eat 37 dumplings
2. Reject all of them (emotionally devastating)
3. Then commit to the first dumpling that is better than all previous dumplings
This raises several important psychological questions:
1. What if dumpling #12 was my soulmate? Am I just supposed to ghost it for the sake of math?
2. What if I get dumpling fatigue?
Around dumpling #29, am I even capable of sound judgment, or am I just a sodium-driven hallucination?
3. What if every dumpling after 37 is fine? Have I optimized my life or just created a high-stakes carb-based anxiety disorder?
Here’s the real issue.
The 37% rule assumes that there are a fixed number of choices, clear ranking criteria, and a calm, rational decision-maker
Which is adorable. Because in real life, we are emotionally biased, intermittently hungry, and occasionally attached to things that make no statistical sense
(Again: dumpling #12. I’m not over it.)
From a psychological perspective, the 37% rule is less about truth and more about tolerance for uncertainty. It’s trying to solve the unbearable human problem of seeing guessing ourselves.
So we outsource the decision to math. Because math feels clean.
Math doesn’t have attachment wounds. Math has never texted someone it shouldn’t have. But here’s the quiet rebellion. Life may not be an optimization problem.
It may be a savoring problem. A meaning-making problem. A “why am I emotionally attached to this dumpling” problem.
So yes. Try the 37% rule if you must.
Apply it to dating. To careers. To dumplings.
But just know that somewhere around option #12, your nervous system may lean in and whisper that it may be the one.
And no algorithm, no matter how elegant, can compete with that.
Also, for the record.
I will not be rejecting the first 37 dumplings. I have boundaries and a hunger.
Categories: Culture, current events, food, Management, mental health, Psychology, sarcasm, society
psychologistmimi 
Oh Dear Lord “The Secretary Rule” Been Around Since the 1950’s
Applicable to Yes the 37% Rule of Interviewing the first 37% of
Secretarial Applicants and making that Percentage the Stopping
Point to Choose the Best One So Far
And Now Not Unlike The World
of Dating Apps Online Created
By Mostly Nerds and Geeks
Like Who Would You Call
to Design an Online World
Mark Zuckerberg the
Odd Guy Who Dropped
Out at Harvard Or Perhaps
The Other Guy who Helped
Develop ‘Pay Pal’ For “Only Fans” Clubs
Yes the Great X-Man plus Rocket Ship
Man Plus Electric Dumpster Truck Man
The Soon to Be King of Mars if His Ships
Don’t
Blow
Up
on the
Loading Up Dock
Like that small man from
Amazon
Yet i suppose considering
X-Man is about to do Trillionaire
Yes it Seems there is advantage to
The Condition of Asperger’s We Both Share
Yet Not Necessarily Riches of the Soul Deeper
Than a Journey to a Hot or Cold Rock Holding No Life
in
Deep
Space
Okay Dear Miriam
Back to the 37 Percent
Rule to Choose a Mate
It’s Kinda Like the Fictional
Part of the Story of John Nash
And His “Beautiful Mind” in the
Movie Scene Where the “Nerd” With
The Pocket Pen Protector tells His “Cool
Friends” at the Bar they Need to Ignore the
Blonde and Go for Her Less so-called Desirable
Brunette Friends Hmm bluntly Put even more to meet
a
mate
at the Meat
Market Bars Will Be
Concerned that if they all
Go for the So-called Most
Desired Blonde They Block
Each Other and go home alone
Anyway the Movie was trying to
Say this is How He Developed His
‘Economic Game Theory’ Yet Later Nash
Admitted it Was Flawed as He Had Absolutely
No Emotional
Intelligence to
Go With His
Mathematical
Systemizing Mind
i suppose He Never Looked
in a Woman’s Eyes and Forgot
Time or What the Rest of Her Looked
Like Forever Lost in the Love that Windows
of Soul Will Bring Deeper Even Deeper Indeed
What A Spark Generated
From Windows of Souls
That Meet and Greet
Will Generate
So far Beyond
All NuMBers and Words
Hehe Yet what do i know
Just a Pauper Who Married
A REAL Indian Disney Princess
Who had
Nothing in Her
Pockets Either
Yet Forever in Her Eyes
Indeed i Forgot about all my NumBeRS and Words
And Basically after 37 Years Now She’s Never Aged
For what
The Beauty
of Soul Breathes For Real
For Free With No Expensive
Streaming Channel online to see
Okay one last Trivia Note of Reality
It Doesn’t Always Take Eyes Dancing
Solo with Nothing to ‘Hunt’ at the Largest
Metro Dance Hall on “College Night” for 6 Years
Yes the Dude who Nobody wanted to sit by at Lunch
In Middle School ending Up also “The Phantom of the Opera”
And “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” Shut in my Home with
The Worst Pain Known to Humankind in my Right Eye and Ear
Without
A Mask
Or even
A Bell to
Toll in the
Notre Dame Tower
Yes for all 66 Months
Wake to Sleep no Drug
Would Touch Not even
the Memory of the Feeling
Of A SMiLe Worth Living Then
Fast forward again to the
Bar Just Strolling By Some
Bar Tables before going home
to the Disney Princess for Real
A Group Of Women Stop me and
tell me they were Just watching me
Dance Solo Not Caring What Anyone Thought
of the Free of me With Shades On Wishing One
Day to Marry
Someone
Just Like me
True it’s Not Always
The Eyes or Hair
Somedays
It’s Just the Whole
Package Dancing Hehe
And Yes There were both
Blondes and Yes Brunettes
in the Group of College Women
As i was approaching 60 Years-Old
not
worried
about NuMBeRS at all…
Oh Yes and they asked for
Selfies with me and i still Have
Pictures as ‘they say’Photos or it didn’t happen’…
And True there are so many other REAL Stories
too many to ‘Count’
They Just Flow every
Day like someone
Boating Away
in ‘A Day
iN The Life’
‘Captain Salt’
From the
“River Styx”
Just Floating
Free With SHadeS On
Flying about an inch Above Earth
It’s Not about How High or Low You Go
As
Long
It’s Always
The Beginning
As iFly For Free..:)
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Adorable. Lol.
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