Lucky Sevens is a new series of list posts here at slightly insightful.
Everyone knows that “list” posts are always terrific blog fodder, but Top 10 lists are so cliché.
After experimenting with various lengths, I’ve determined that seven is the perfect size for list posts.
How did I come up to this conclusion? Here are seven reasons why seven is an all around amazing number and the best number for list posts.
- Seven the best number ever: Not only is it a prime number, but the ancient Greeks called it the perfect number, as it made up of the perfect figures 3 and 4 (triangle and square). More on what makes seven such an awesome number here.
- Seven sticks in your head. I remember reading that US phone numbers were kept to seven digits because that was the optimal number within the short-term memory capacity of most people
- Seven is the luckiest number: When rolling a standard pair of dice, seven has a one in six chance of being rolled, the highest probability of any number.
- Seven is essential to the Ultimate Question: The fictional super-computer, Deep Thought, was built for one reason&—to calculate the Ultimate Answer to “life, the universe, and everything.”.Its answer was the number 42. What number goes into 42 exactly 6 times? Seven!
- Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: Perhaps the world’s earliest list post, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, were a travelogue of the greatest landmarks of the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, and Babylonians. Sadly, of the seven, only the Great Pyramid of Giza is still standing
- Seven books in the Harry Potter series: If JK Rowling had not written Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, her seventh in the series, then we’d never have gotten closure on that whole Harry versus old “He who must not be named” thing.
- The Magnificent Seven: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn headline a cast of mean hombres in this 1960 cowboy-western. Shootouts, knife-fights, and stands against impossible odds, this movie’s got it all.
Image courtesy of ThunderChild5
Image courtesy of Wikipedia
There you go, proof positive why seven rocks so much. I look forward to sharing more lists of sevens in the weeks to come.
