Did you hear the one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Scotsman? Like the story of the Three Little Pigs or Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Or the three trials before the prince wins the hand of the princess. They all follow the rule of three. Things that come in threes seem to be funnier or more satisfying. Aristotle wrote about it in his book Rhetoric. Winston Churchill demonstrated the rule’s power in many of his speeches. Adjectives are often grouped in threes to emphasize an idea such as my favourite edict about creative projects; ‘You can have it good, quick, cheap – any two’. Snappy dialogue often turns in threes as in, ‘Face it, Brian, I’m a bad father, a lousy husband and a snappy dresser.’
The rule also works visually. On this site, I have divided my services between three panels. I didn’t deliberately set out to do this; this was how the cards fell once I had finished endlessly shuffling them. Designers generally advise you to use no more than three different fonts or three different colours. And then there’s the ‘three click rule‘ – that no content should be more than three clicks away from the home page, though for me that’s already one click too many.
Why these holy trinities are so compelling lies buried deep within our psyche. After all, when we come into this world we form a trio with our parents. It is the perfect relationship, it implies protection, belonging and love. Perhaps we are always trying to re-discover that state of perfection and therein lies the power of three. So if you have a communication challenge – good, bad or indifferent – trying thinking in triplicate.
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