If you’re in your early 20s and thinking about finding someone special, here’s a helpful idea called the “37% Rule.”
Imagine you’re trying to find the right person to be in a relationship with, just like finding a job or a new place to live. The 37% Rule, from a book by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, suggests a smart way to make this choice.
Here’s how it works: When you have many options and not a lot of time, like when you’re looking for a partner, the best time to decide is when you’ve looked at about one-third (or 37%) of your options. This could save you time and help you make a good choice.
When you reach about one-third into choosing something, like picking a partner or making a decision, you’ll have learned enough to choose wisely. You won’t spend too much time checking out all the choices. When you hit this 37% point, you’re ready to select the best one.
A popular example of this idea, created by some non-PC math folks in the 1960s, is “The Secretary Problem.”
Let’s imagine a situation where you’re choosing a secretary, and you only have one chance to meet and decide. Once you say no to someone, you can’t change your mind and hire them later, as they might have chosen another job. The question is: How many candidates do you meet to increase your chances of finding the best one?
If you meet just three candidates, the authors explain, your best option is to choose based on how good the second candidate is. If she’s better than the first, you hire her. If not, you keep waiting. If you have five candidates, you wait until the third one to make judgments.
If you’re hoping to find a special person to love between the ages of 18 and 40, the best time to really think about who you might marry is when you’re a little over 26 years old. This is around one-third into the 22 years. If you start earlier, you might not meet the best possible partners who could appear later. But if you wait too long, the good choices might disappear, and it could become harder to find the right match.
In math, searching for the best partner is like solving a tricky puzzle called an “optimal stopping problem.” According to Christian and Griffiths, when you have more than 1,000 potential choices, the best time to decide is when you’ve seen about 36.81% of them. If you have even more choices, you aim for a number closer to 37%.
Studies about happy marriages also support the idea that around 26 years old is an excellent time to find a partner.
While the 37% Rule offers some good advice, it’s not flawless. This rule is based on logical math reasoning and suggests that by age 26, you should have a pretty good idea of what you want in a partner. However, it doesn’t consider that our preferences for partners can change a lot from ages 18 to 40.
What the 37% Rule does show us is that around age 26, we tend to make more reliable choices in dating. This is when we can feel more confident in our decisions and take those essential romantic steps more confidently.
Do you agree with this theory? What is the best age to get married, according to you? Let us know in the comments.
I only been with him for a year been through he’ll his and jail from fight me