I was going to place some witty link about the ten percent rule here. It was going to be the frame for this post. There is only one small problem. I did a google search on, ‘ten percent’, I came up with everything except what I was looking for! That can only mean one thing. Either my thinking about ten percent is wrong, or I assumed that I know more about ten percent than I do. Now there is a new concept, lol! I figure that except about me, I do not know a lot about anything. At least not to the extent I would claim I am an expert on a subject. Some subjects I know a lot about, but once you claim to be an expert, there are hundreds of people lined up to prove you wrong. My life is too short for that.
Back to the ten percent rule…. I do not remember where I heard the version I always promote. Who knows, I may have heard another version and saw a different way it applies so I adopted the version I came up with, and conveniently forgot I read the original somewhere else. I suppose my version is more of a rule of thumb, rather than anything based on any scientific fact. Of course it has to be a rule of thumb, as I could not find a link to it.
I like to apply ten percent to you, me, and everyone we know, everything we do, think, or believe. That sure narrows it down doesn’t it? Ten percent applies to everything about us. I realized probably around college age, that my thoughts, while I think they are good and sound were not shared by everyone. As hard as it was to believe, I found people who thought so differently than I did that we were not even in the same room.
I found ten percent applies to all areas of my life, not just what I think. Only some people could agree with what I think. Back then the thought that I could change my mind frequently, or be persuaded to change my mind was new to me. After my school years of being fed information, and told how and what to think, original thought was a very unique concept that opened up a whole new world for me.
Thinking about the world’s beginning is a good place to generalize my version ten percent rule. I may choose think about the world I know and enjoy was created by little green men who arrived in a spaceship, and wanted to run an experiment, and here we are. I will generally find most people will think I have lost touch with reality in this thought. The key concept I have found is - most people. If I had the luxury of asking enough people, I will find about ten percent will be willing to concede privately (if their answer can not be traced back to them), that I am indeed correct, and they themselves have always thought little green men creating the world was true. Of course any SIM’s game, makes this thought easier on some levels than it was pre-computer age.
Bringing my ten percent a little closer to something that can be observed, how about people’s thoughts about what colors are appropriate to wear depending on the season? Generally most people I have observed divide their clothing colors into four basic categories decided by season. It is rare to find a woman wearing muted fall colors in the spring, or bright summer colors in the winter. That does not mean they think this is correct to divide their clothing up like they do, but they follow the generally accepted dress of those around them. As much as we yearn to be unique, we want to be uniquely average.
Ten percent thinking brings a huge relief to me in my personal life. I know no matter how I think or how strange I think I am, I can find at least ten percent of people think I am perfectly normal, though not on everything at once. Find enough ten percent people, and I am boringly average.
