Optimal Stopping · Interactive
The Thirty-Seven Percent Rule
Look at some options, reject them all, then leap at the next one that beats them. Find the fraction where your odds of catching the very best peak — then watch a thousand searches prove it.
The Curve
Slide your “looking” fraction and watch your chance of landing the best option rise, peak, and fall.
37%You look at
37.1%Chance of the best
7Options skipped
Play a Round
Each bar is one option; taller is better. The grey bars are your looking phase; the ink bar is what you took; the rust outline is the true best.
Looking
Considered
Your pick
The best
The rule aims to catch the single best option and counts anything less as a miss. It assumes options arrive in random order, can be ranked against each other, and can never be recalled once passed. Relax any of those and the exact peak shifts — but the shape of the advice holds.
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