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Rule of Three
Rule of Three
Rule of Three
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Overview

Was De La Soul right, is three really the magic number? Dive into this model and decide for yourself. 

< ...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Itaque eos id agere, ut a se dolores, morbos, debilitates repellant. Nihil enim hoc differt. Esse enim quam vellet iniquus iustus poterat inpune. Itaque hic ipse iam pridem est reiectus; Tu vero, inquam, ducas licet, si sequetur; Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Age nunc isti doceant, vel tu potius quis enim ista melius? Sed erat aequius Triarium aliquid de dissensione nostra iudicare. Quia nec honesto quic quam honestius nec turpi turpius.

Non modo carum sibi quemque, verum etiam vehementer carum esse? Aliter homines, aliter philosophos loqui putas oportere? Quae si potest singula consolando levare, universa quo modo sustinebit? Mihi enim satis est, ipsis non satis.

Mihi enim satis est, ipsis non satis.

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Actionable Takeaways
  • Weave the Rule of Three into your communication. 

Practi ...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quid, quod homines infima fortuna, nulla spe rerum gerendarum, opifices denique delectantur historia? Quid loquor de nobis, qui ad laudem et ad decus nati, suscepti, instituti sumus? Videsne quam sit magna dissensio? Quamquam te quidem video minime esse deterritum. Ne in odium veniam, si amicum destitero tueri. At cum de plurimis eadem dicit, tum certe de maximis. Duo Reges: constructio interrete.

Sed quid sentiat, non videtis. Quae diligentissime contra Aristonem dicuntur a Chryippo. Nobis aliter videtur, recte secusne, postea; Si longus, levis dictata sunt. Videamus animi partes, quarum est conspectus illustrior;

Nihil enim iam habes, quod ad corpus referas; Qua tu etiam inprudens utebare non numquam. Ex quo illud efficitur, qui bene cenent omnis libenter cenare, qui libenter, non continuo bene. Cur igitur, inquam, res tam dissimiles eodem nomine appellas? Ad eos igitur converte te, quaeso. Efficiens dici potest. Illum mallem levares, quo optimum atque humanissimum virum, Cn. Ergo, si semel tristior effectus est, hilara vita amissa est? Neque solum ea communia, verum etiam paria esse dixerunt. Audio equidem philosophi vocem, Epicure, sed quid tibi dicendum sit oblitus es.

Explore More
Rule of Three is featured in these playbooks:
Limitations

Overuse of any communication technique can become jarring, and the Rule of Three should simply be seen as one of the arrows in your toolkit. To that end, mixing your approach and changing the rhythm of your sentence structure is important. 

In addition to rhythm, sometimes using two examples or points can be useful to provide a binary or contrasting view rather than pointing to a pattern. 

In Practice

Martin Luther King Jr— I have a dream. 

The Rule of Three is a feature of many of King’s speeches. This site breaks down his most famous speech, and captures this key example: 

“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Note that even the list of six items — black men and white men etc. — has been grouped in three groups of two, to maintain the rhythm of the Rule of Three. 

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This model will help you to:

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Origins & Resources

Evidence of the Rule of Three can be traced back as far as Aristotle and biblical writing. Aristotle, inherently captured it in his Rules of Rhetoric, though it is unclear who formally named and identified the ‘rule’, thus we’ve left the model uncredited. 

My Notes

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