‘What’s the stupidest rule you follow that weirdly works?’ – 21 silly things people do that somehow make a whole lot of sense

Life is a series of bizarre and random events that our brains force us to stitch together into some sort of coherent narrative otherwise we’d never cope. So it’s no wonder that we invent and enforce funny little rules for ourselves that make us feel like there is some semblance of order amongst the madness.

Over on the AskUK subreddit, user AnonymousTimewaster shared one of these rules, which has been passed down through the generations:

What’s the stupidest rule you follow that weirdly works? My mum refuses to watch a movie under two hours long because ‘All good movies are over two hours’, which is obviously nonsense.

But when scrolling through Netflix etc., it seems to be true more often than not (largely by nature of two hour movies being well funded dramas/thrillers).

Which got people to thinking about the strange regulations they have somewhat arbitrarily applied to their own lives, like these …

1.

‘Never drink in the pub closest to a railway station.’
–Alas_boris

2.

‘Three episode rule: if you aren’t interested in a show by episode three its probably not worth continuing.’
–Master-Trick2850

3.

‘Sitcoms are often the exception. Not uncommon for them to take most of their first season to find footing.’
–Georg13V

4.

‘Don’t put a burger down. Once you do it loses structural integrity and you’ll make so much more mess. Hold on to it until it’s finished.’
–missuseme

5.

‘Pick up your own dog shit and you won’t step in anyone else’s.’
–ahairyhoneymonsta

6.

‘Nothing good happens after 2am. Just go to sleep. And yes I learnt this from How I Met Your Mother, but it works.’
–Cultural_Tank_6947

7.

‘Put stuff in the basket when shopping online and wait 24 hours to click checkout. Most of the time I change my mind or the shop will send me a discount code.’
–Nameisnotmine

8.

‘Let people pull out of junctions in heavy traffic and others will return the favour. Basically be a decent human being and spread the love and others will too!’
–chewmypaws

9.

‘In my sf/fantasy reading days: ‘Never read a novel with a map in the front unless its written by Tolkien’.

They were generally by Tolkien wannabes or writers who couldn’t describe the story without pictures. I always regretted breaking this rule, though I may have been unlucky.

10.

‘The ‘x second rule’. I will change this number depending on how much I want the floor food. I’ve never had any illnesses from eating said floor food.’
–thinkaboutthegame

11.

‘If there are multiple queues for anything, always queue on the left.’
–sunnyreaps