Applying the 37% Rule

I read about this in a real estate article a bunch of years ago and it stuck with me. Now, I apply the logic in situations where if I don’t act, I could lose an option (think apartment hunting, wedding venues, hiring folks, vintage shopping for a specific type of item). The idea is that I should spend the first 37% of my search learning the market—I don’t commit to anything I see in the first 37% of the research— but after that, I lock in on ‘the first subsequent option’ that is better than everything I saw. It’s worked for me, I see it as an antidote to maximal tendency, and a remedy for indecisiveness.