Rule of 3 (consulting/presentations)

Biological Parallel

Working memory in humans and other primates can reliably hold 3-4 chunks of information simultaneously—the cognitive limit discovered across species from monkeys to corvids. Vervet monkeys use exactly three distinct alarm calls (leopard, eagle, snake) because this matches the brain's capacity for simultaneous threat categorization without confusion. More than three items exceed our attentional spotlight's bandwidth, forcing sequential processing that destroys the holistic pattern recognition consultants seek. The rule of three isn't rhetorical elegance; it's respecting the architecture of primate cognition.