Listology

The statistician in me loves lists - top ten especially. Give me a set of numbers or characters and I will immediately want to "order" (or sort) it. The other day in Columbus I saw the book "Listography Journal: Your Life in Lists" by Lisa Nola --- very creative. That caused me to find the listology internet site for easily tracking of different lists.

Susan carries around a list of her favorite words. I have all kinds of lists (favorite quotes) on papers that I will never be able to find. I've asked many people - give me the top 3 of your all time favorite movies, books, songs, etc. Too often the category is too broad - so the response is - action, drama, or comedy etc. This is really asking for a "Chunk" (a term used in memory span).

The trouble with lists is the ability to remember the number of items. Miller's Law postulates that our short-term memory is optimized with 7 plus or minus 2 items. Further research states it is 7 for digits (e.g. the phone number has a chunk of 3 and a chunk of 4); 6 for letters; 5 for words.

So when you create you list - pick no more than seven items. (7 Habits of ....; The 5 secrets .....; The five people you will meet in Heaven; The five Chinese brothers; Seven Deadly Sins; Seven Dwarfs; Seven Wonders of the World; ---------- the list goes on :)