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The 5% Rule

jonpauluritis.com

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Re: The 5% Rule

#21

Post by sokoloff »

ta988 wrote: post #8

This roughly matches my estimate of evil drivers on the road, people cutting lines violently and not using turning lights, pushing to insert on the right when they used the emergency lane to pass everybody in a slowdown...

I think it’s way less than that. We just got back from a ~1600 mile round-trip to visit family plus a week’s worth of incidental driving around town to buy groceries and visit other family nearby.

On the highway segments, most cars were just trundling along between 2 and 20 mph over the limit, generally keeping reasonably to themselves. When an obstacle appeared on the roadside (stopped motorist, police, other), people flexed to let other cars get left and then returned to normal driving.

Sure, I noticed a few people driving aggressively, following too closely, changing lanes excessively to squeak out one or two extra spots, but that was perhaps 50 cars at the very most in 1600 miles of driving. 1 or 2 per hour, not 1 per 20.

Re: The 5% Rule

#22

Post by kilroy123 »

This has been my experience as well. I, too, have met and talked to thousands of people from every possible background on seven different continents of this world. From the poorest people on Earth to some of the richest.

I've seen the same thing. About 5% are nasty and about 1% are truly bad people who commit horrible crimes.

Re: The 5% Rule

#23

Post by hoppla »

plugin-baby wrote: post #16

> As an example: one time a lady threw a huge fit about a 2-3 inch smooth brown hair being in her meal when her server was a blond girl and the entire kitchen staff were 35+ year-old Mexicans/ African Americans with completely shaved heads. Now I'm not saying this woman brought the hair into the restaurant and planted it in her meal... but I know for a fact it couldn't have been from any of our staff in the restauran…

He said it was a blonde waiter and bald chefs, author probably had nothing to do with the food at all…

Re: The 5% Rule

#24

Post by rgrieselhuber »

My phrase for this is “unreasonable hostility” and it really is sobering to behold every time. I do wonder if there is some correlation between this 5% and the percentage of sociopaths in society.

Re: The 5% Rule

#25

Post by Beltalowda »

frellus wrote: post #13
falcolas wrote: post #10

It's perhaps worth noting that in excess of 5% of the populace have one form of mental disability or another. ADHD alone is estimated to be a disorder present in 5% of the adult population (2% are currently diagnosed; the 5% is based off childhood diagnosis rates and the fact it usually doesn't go away when becoming an adult). And while those with ADHD are unlikely to populate the OP's 5%, those with pathological nar…

Spot on. It's a shame that we haven't prioritized (and de-stigmatized) mental health, especially at a young age, so horrible children don't grow up to be horrible ego-centric adults.

Arguably these kind of personality disorders aren't really "mental health" issues. Or, certainly not in the same way that something like ADD, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, etc. are. It's basically a nice way of saying "your personality sucks so much that we've decided to label it".

Re: The 5% Rule

#26

Post by axiolite »

falcolas wrote: post #10

It's perhaps worth noting that in excess of 5% of the populace have one form of mental disability or another. ADHD alone is estimated to be a disorder present in 5% of the adult population (2% are currently diagnosed; the 5% is based off childhood diagnosis rates and the fact it usually doesn't go away when becoming an adult). And while those with ADHD are unlikely to populate the OP's 5%, those with pathological nar…

Except those disorders don't often translate to people acting terribly towards acquaintances. Sociopaths may be the nicest people you've ever met, if and when they want something from you. Schizophrenics may be various levels of detached from reality and perhaps difficult in that way, but only a tiny fraction of a percentage are so unhinged that they would act abusive or destructive.

There just isn't a large enough population of mentally ill with symptoms that would manifest as described to make up 5%, though they surely make up some part of it.

Re: The 5% Rule

#28

Post by maxerickson »

ronyeh wrote: post #11
flashgordon wrote: post #7

I wonder if you turn this around, could every body have a tendency to be nasty 5% of the time?

I think it's possible. I feel like even the most normal people can have an off day when they just want to be assholes to people for whatever reason. (I've personally done this, and later regretted.) So maybe the sales folks or bartenders are seeing those people on their off days.

5% of the time though? That's gonna be several regrettable incidents a month.

Re: The 5% Rule

#29

Post by theamk »

flashgordon wrote: post #7

I wonder if you turn this around, could every body have a tendency to be nasty 5% of the time?

I don't think so? 5% is more than half hour of your awake time, every day. Or few hours of "nasty time" every week.

If this was a general rule, it would be easily noticeable, and I haven't seen this in people I interact with.

Re: The 5% Rule

#30

Post by jpswade »

Surely it’s more time based too, the ebb and flow of people sucking at different times has to be a factor. Not even 5% suck 100% of the time. There’s no way that 95% of people don’t suck 100% of the time either.

Are we saying that 5 in 100 people will suck. If so think that’s an underestimate.

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