The Magic Number
If in doubt: 3
Think of a number.
Think of three.
3 is a the magic number.
All numbers are magic, especially 3.1
The trio, the triad, the trinity, the trilogy.
The number three comes in handy when you are…
…getting things done:
measure twice, cut once
too hot, too cold, Goldilocks-perfect
pick 3 things to focus on
tricycles stand on their own where bicycles fall over
…telling a story:
beginning, middle, end
3 act structure
the trilogy
education, education, education
3 Graces; 3 Furies; 3 Fates; 3 witches; Athena, Hera & Aphrodite; 3 Little Pigs; 3 Billy Goats Gruff, …
“What I tell you three times is true”
…categorising things:
red, amber, green
height, width, depth
ego, id, superego
igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary
head, heart, gut
positive, comparative, superlative
underworld, earth, heavens
father, son, holy ghost
Counting to 3
Three is not binary, but not lots.
Some counting systems reflect this: 1, 2, lots or 1, 2, 3, lots. Once-twice-thrice.
Ancient Greeks called 3 the first odd number, and Pythagoreans called it the first number.
A triangle is the first two-dimensional shape and the commonest figure in geometry.
And a circle can be drawn through any 3 points which are not on a straight line.
Pi, “the most remarkable of numbers”, is three-and-a-little-bit.
Combinations of 3
The numbers 1 and 2 can be combined in 2 ways: either (1, 2) or (2, 1).
You can take 1, 2 and 3, and combine them in 6 different ways (and for one, two, three and four, there’s 24 combinations).2
A person’s short-term memory can hold about six items.
Two combinations is too simple to be useful, and 24 too overwhelming.
In summary
If in doubt, pick three.
I normally keep these posts to less than one minute’s reading time. Substack says that this one, appropriately, takes three. Thank you for your time!
For an in-depth look at which numbers are magic and why, read The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers by David Wells.
These combinations are called the factorial of a number, written as 2!, 3!, 4! …
2! = 2
3! = 6
4! = 24
5! = 120