Rule of Thumb website
The Rules of Thumb website, created by Rules of Thumb author Tom Parker, is off and running, with thousand of user-submitted rules of thumb. Some are more useful than others, but they are almost always interesting.
DIRECTION CONVEYS TIME AND EMOTIONLink
In advertising, art and photography, the direction the subject is looking or the flow of the composition can affect the tone of the image. Left is the past, right is the future, up is positive, down is negative. For example: a subject looking up and to the right is looking positively into the future. Submitted by: Jeremy Reid, Graphic Designer, Belleville, Ontario, CanadaMAXIMUM VALUE OF A SERVICE The value of any service is highest *before* the service has been rendered.
FINDING SMALL THINGS ON THE FLOOR To find something very small that you have dropped on the floor, lay a flashlight on the floor and rotate it. A small object looks a lot bigger when it has a shadow too.
WALKING WITH SMALL CHILDREN When walking with small children who are falling behind, the slower you walk, the slower they will walk, until they stop. If you maintain your pace, they will keep up with you, albeit somewhat behind.
the latest
latest episodes
I'm in lurve with that site. And a contributor!
Of course if you run really fast you can lose your kids. Most adults can outrun a 4 year old. That's really handy sometimes. Especially up in the mountains, just ask Takuan.
only because they always waited till I was preoccupied with a bear first
the slower you walk, the slower they will walk, until they stop
Wow, I thought it was only my kids!
Ain't it the truth? I think every parent has learned that rule of thumb the hard way.
Speaking of outrunning four year olds, how many five year olds can you take in a fight?
When walking with small children who are falling behind, the slower you walk, the slower they will walk, until they stop.
It's not just small kids. I've had 2 or 3 girlfriends, including the one who is now my wife, that exhibited this behavior. I can sometimes slow down to a complete stand-still & my wife will come to a stop about 3 feet behind me, wondering what the problem is. It's kind of funny sometimes, although it's kind of annoying trying to talk to her while we walk.
They let you play with bears? Lucky. Humf.. we had to make our own bears and then put bacon around our necks to get them to play with us. Kids are so spoiled these days.
Alternately, if a photographic subject is looking up and to the right, it might indicate that they are Mariah Carey or Christian Siriano.
Which dispels the whole "positive/into the future" thing, maybe.
That's so old. That site has been there forever. I used the pizza-buying rule of thumb and ended up with way too much for my business meeting and everyone thought I was an idiot, which I was.
If I were you, El Smiley, I'd find another place to work if your coworkers think you're an idiot for buying the wrong number of pizzas.
That whole direction thing is retarded. We only think of time as "forwards" (right) and "backwards" (left) because of the idioms we use. Some cultures have descending calendars, which would mean that up means the past, although if you think about up in regards to plants and how they grow, then that means the future, which means that we can all conclude that directions only convey meaning in a completely arbitrary/convention-based/subjective way.
Similarilly, color psychology is complete BS.
But some idioms might come from hardwiring. In design school, they definitely tell you that viewers look at the left first. Is that true in places where people read right to left? Any middle-eastern educated designers here?
Up and down are easy. When they mean photographed looking right do they mean the subject is looking right or the photograph is looking right? A subject looking right that is photographed is looking to my left when I look at the picture so do they mean the subject or the final picture?
That "how many 5-year-olds can you fight" thing is so old. I used that to order 5-year-olds to fight for an office party and it wasn't near enough. Everyone thought I was an idiot, which I was.
If you've been reading Here Comes Everybody, as I have, you might think, "Ah! A new organization has formed rapidly and with little or no transaction costs. But, a certain amount of failure will be inherent in the project due to the publish-then-filter practice!"