There is an old Business saying, "Good, Fast, Cheap, Pick two." It reflects on the rule that everything has advantages, but all come at a cost.

Take for example, a chair. You can get a good chair (quality), a chair quickly (speed), or a very inexpensive chair. A good chair takes time to make, and is usually costly (Good and Fast). A very inexpensive chair that is of good quality usually takes a lot of time to make, or for the price to go down (Good, Cheap). And of course, a very inexpensive chair you can have soon is usually very shoddy quality (Fast, Cheap).

computers too, sometimes even fit the best of all. You can have a quality computer (Fast, Reliable) very soon (Time) but usually for a lot of money (not cheap). Likewise you can have a very good computer, after a fair amount of time, for a good price (Good, Cheap). And of course, you can get a really inexpensive one very soon, but it is often bad quality (Fast, Cheap)

There is a parallel to this pick two of three notion, In dating:

Intelligent, Pretty, Sane, Pick two.

It seems no matter who I speak to, regardless of walk of life, this rule seems to hold. The pretty ones usually aren't that bright (usually) and the ones who are bright and pretty, usually are nut jobs. And those sane ones, they either ain't very pretty or not very smart.

Now, certainly there are very rare exceptions to this rule, just as in the business example, but those are just that: exceptions.

So, in saying this, Which quality would you skip out on? Do you not really care about looks, at all? Do you find intelligence to be overrated, or even prefer someone not as smart as you? Or maybe you have come to accept that the best things in life make no sense, in any sense of the term.

Friends, Divergians, lend me your fingers!

Sanity and pretty are both overrated. As long as they aren't mental ward material, and as long as as they don't look like they were born near chrenobyl, we're good. I like 'em with a brain.

Sane enough to hold a conversation and intelligent enough to prove how smart they are, those are the two I look for. Truthfully, my standard of sanity isn't very high either, my father and I make jokes with each other that we've both gone crazy.

On second thought.. who in this world isn't a little crazy?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I've yet to find anyone who I don't think of as pretty. That might be because my standard of judgement for it is different than the rest of the world's though. I prefer to judge 'beauty' by their mentality, not by physicality.

Truthfully, the few women I've actually thought of persuing are the ones I haven't actually seen (by the point I realize the thought). With that, I hate it when I start to think about persuing someone after I meet them in person. That speaks to me of lust, which I've never heard of succeeding.

Looks aren't that important. Think about it: in 40 - 50 years, they aren't likely to look that great anymore, anyway... but hopefully they'll still have their wits and their sanity.

Of course, it's nice to have something pretty to look at from time to time - which is why we have "movie stars" who can't act.

I value intelligence. To me, that's probably one of the most attractive features. There have even been cases where I've met a guy, thought "wow, he's really hot", and then tried to engage him in a conversation, only to discover that most of his brain mass is focused on workout routines. After that, he somehow just doesn't seem as attractive anymore.

Sanity... well, if you're thinking long-term, I doubt crazy will work out. The novelty is bound to wear off.

My brother has this concept as his wallpaper background at his office. He does web development and whenever people come looking for stuff to be build, he shows them his background and tells them to pick two of the three for how he does the development.

Well, this is all going to depend a bit on where exactly the lines fall. I mean, each of these three bars are all kind of on a sliding scale. How Sane/Insane? How Smart/Dumb? How Pretty/Ugly? It really all depends on that, but if you're talking about people who are on the min and max of each of these...

Ideal Me: I wouldn't care about looks, honestly. If you're intelligent and sane, then you're good enough for me. I'd like someone who could hold a conversation and one that won't tear out my eyeballs at the first signs insanity kicking in.

Actual Me (Currently): Forget about the intelligence. If you're sane and look like a bombshell, hook me up! Conversation? I can have those with friends. You're there to be arm candy and make other people jealous. The sanity helps.

Yeah... I want to say that looks don't matter... but I'm kind of vain. I'm not gonna lie here, they do matter, at least to a certain point. I would like to not be, obviously, but that's not a possibility. If I can't even stand to look at the person, how am I supposed to date them? Sanity is a must; I've had to deal with too many females who are just screwed up and I wouldn't wish that upon anyone. Intelligence is probably the least valued quality out of these three areas if only because it's something that I can find elsewhere. As I've stated, sliding scale!

Sane people are boring.

Ideally: Looks don't matter in the least as long as they're intelligent, stimulating in conversation, witty and know how to challenge someone without being a total ass about it. Someone who can exchange a joke, play some Scrabble, etc, etc and has their head securely on their shoulders and their feet firm on the ground but has an imagination and a love of fun.

Realistically: Looks do matter. To an extent. I'll admit that I'm more likely to admire a good physique as much as the next girl; but that's about where it ends. I'm cautious to the point of paranoia when it comes to good looking men... mostly due to my own self-esteem issues and some other stuff but also because a lot of the good looking men I've had the (mis)fortune of interacting with; are serious assholes who fuck up whoever they happen to be with's lives or their own or both.

I like a good personality over anything else, intelligence and a good, witty personality and imagination will attract me moreso than if you can star on Baywatch or something. I'm not enough of a hypocrite to deny that I do like a man who keeps himself physically fit.

Nut job + Nut job = 2 Nut jobs. Or, in my case, Nut job + Nut job = One Nut job with the intent to kill her boyfriend. My general trend is cute and intelligent, People who try to fit the world together to match them just aren't as fun as those who decide to just sledgehammer the bored game instead. Yes, the bored game.

I will officially come out and say it: I am intelligent, insane, and apparently good looking (But I hate my body so how would I know?). All of you lucky people out there, I'm not the one you want.

As has been said, sanity is overrated. Personally, I believe that everyone is a little bit crazy, and that the sooner we realize this, the better off we are.

Thus far, I've found that all which matters is a mind. Without independent thought, a life of questioning, and being forever skeptical, all you become is another of the endless masses living within their own fated existence. Not that there is anything wrong with that, many do and live just fine, happy lives. I just could never see myself, or anyone else able to contemplate deep thoughts, ever able to settle for that.

Physical beauty, yes, fades in time. But one must remember beauty is not only born looks. It's also how you dress, how you style your hair, if you have tattoos or piercings. How you adorn your house, your car, even your computer. A pretty face can mean a lot in attraction, but even the least physically attractive people can be so much more underneath than even the most beautiful of humans.

Sanity, while to a certain extent varies in comprehension and classifications, is more relative to ones own view. I know many, many intelligent people who I would not classify as sane in a general sense of interacting with the public, but who in their own right are sane relative to myself.

Regarding beauty, every woman (I can not speak for men) that I have met who are particularly physically beautiful and also extremely intelligent, end up being rather insane relative to the masses. And of course, we all have seen quite a few beautiful people who are for all intents and purposes sane, but lack an independent mind.

I suppose the aim of the exercise is to aim more along the lines of the examples. Each quality should be towards more of the extreme, as most people have *some* amount of intelligence, beauty, or sanity. And certainly there are those who may have only one quality, none, or even all three.

I suppose I could go for any variance between sanity and beauty, but again, intelligence is a must. I would either drive them insane, or them drive me to boredom, if this were not the case.

I went with intelligence on this one, but I don't know if my reason is the same as others. Some said that they can have intelligent conversations with their friends, and others have said that they just prefer better-looking people, although ideally this shouldn't be the case.

I have found that I'm a nurturing type of person. In a relationship, I just like to make the girl happy. It doesn't matter if she's not the sharpest tool in the proverbial shed, so long as I have the ability to make her feel good. Somehow, making a girl happy, and knowing that it was me that made her that way, is extremely rewarding for me. I don't know how others feel about similar situations, but I personally am content to simply do my best to help a girl out... if she is kinda pretty, and not so insane that I have no idea how to make her happy, then I'm happy, you know?

Sanity is the first unnecessary... I voted for that mainly without thinking too much first. After a little deliberation I figure I’m so mental that it’s inevitable that anyone that I’m attracted too or vice versa would have to be equally as insane! Lol.

And the world has enough people that fret over vanity and beauty, they all disgust me, can’t they learn to use something other than their eyes and pelvic regions to think or feel!

Oops, lol, went into a rant there, ^_^; eh he he he…

(Also, who called it insane, if you are in sanity then you are sane it seems to me, so what they call insane should be renamed outsane, for they are ‘out of sanity.’ Lol sorry for quoting my own poem ^_^ how lame am I for doing that… {-_- And that’s rhetorical…})

Having been in a relationship with a girl who turned out to be a psycho vengeful bitch after I broke things off, sanity is priority number one, two, three, and four with me. There's a BIG difference between being eccentric and being emotionally unstable. And I hate bs drama in all aspects of my life, which emotionally unstable people seem to come hand-in-hand with.

With the other two left, I'd choose to skip intelligence because that's a standard I could lower further than pretty. And by pretty I'm talking about what I find attractive physically. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all. I just can't possibly date a girl that is not pleasant to look at. You may call it shallow, but I call it honest. I think a lot of people are more "selective" than they want to admit.

Intelligence is something that can be weighed in many different ways (book smarts, street smarts, knowledgeable in whatever your interests are) which is why I'd pick this one to skip on. I don't need book smarts or street smarts to enjoy your company and have great conversations about our interests, experiences, and completely unimportant things. Obviously you can't be as dumb as a doorknob, because that would cause problems eventually, but a girl is going to impress me much more with her random knowledge of movies than she is with some fancy college degree.