# Is there a name for this situation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2017, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397 "2017-07-02T22:57:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/41 "2017-07-07T18:21:45Z")
It seems similar in principal to the code-estimation problem: the first 90% of the problem takes 90% of the time, then the second 10% of the problem takes the other 90% of the time. There are several versions of this formulation in computer science. In your case, cleaning the first 90% of hairs makes it 90% clean, but the remaining 10% of hairs make it still 90% dirty šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Obscure\_Pop-culture\_Reference](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de0a6/32.png) [@Obscure\_Pop-culture\_Reference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obscure_Pop-culture_Reference)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2017, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/42 "2017-07-08T07:31:11Z")
Could it be something along the lines of [suvivorship bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias)? In the sense that loking at the situation ignoring the previous events leads to an error in evaluation? ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Matt_Mason)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2017, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/43 "2017-07-10T01:49:14Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I donā€™t think the OP is talking about his wife as the syndrome itself, just citing her as one example out of many. E Problemus Unum? šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/44 "2017-07-11T02:51:57Z")
Iā€™m not aware of an english term for it, but Iā€™d be very surprised if some foreign language doesnā€™t a rather elegant depiction of it. ā€œBaselineā€ captures part of the issue. Your baseline (for the sink, at least) is what it looked like before you cleaned it, while your wifeā€™s baseline is the sinkā€™s condition before you shaved. Thus the final condition is improved from your baseline, but below your wifeā€™s baseline. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/45 "2017-07-11T03:44:57Z")
> [@Cayuga](#): > > Because someone took a snack into the bedroom? > > No, it doesnā€™t bother me. Any given night I might have a bowl, tiny plate, or glass in the bedroom. It canā€™t be that odd to enjoy a bit of ice cream, or a few cookies, or a drink of some sort before going to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/46 "2017-07-11T03:47:41Z")
> [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](#): > > I found my vacuum trimmer to be worse than a regular trimmer and not much cleaner. You bought a really bad model. Some are like that, I bought one like that recently and the vacuum was less than useless and blew the hair around the sink making things worse. I returned it. A decent one (like the replacement I bought) will get the vast majority of the hair. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2017, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/47 "2017-07-11T06:07:35Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I think this may be what is called _ **salience effect bias** _, or [_ **saliency bias** _](https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Saliency%20Bias). The non-scientific answer might be ā€œnot seeing the wood for the treesā€. This is a distant cousin to the problem of the caretakerā€™s bicycle (where a committee will spend half an hour arguing about where the caretakerā€™s bicycle should be stored and then vote through a multi-million project more or less on the nod). ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/48 "2017-07-14T17:27:08Z")
Before this gets too stale, on a similar note more than once Iā€™ve been on the receiving end of this scenario: Wife comes home from store, stuffs bags and packaging from new purchases into empty trashcan filling it to overflowing in one fell swoop, then immediately complains that ā€œyou never take out the trash.ā€ ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/49 "2017-07-14T17:57:36Z")
> [@nate](#): > > Anyway, is there a name for this effect? Yes. The name is _ **marriage** _. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/50 "2017-07-14T18:12:51Z")
I sympathize with the OP. Iā€™m reminded of when thereā€™s a commercial jet crash, and everyone ignores the fact that 99.9999% of flights that day took off and landed safely. Anyway, if the problem is marriage, the solution is separate bathrooms. \*occasionally I clean plant pots in the kitchen sink. Youā€™d think that my washing the vast majority of soil particles down the drain would be sufficient, but no. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![edwardcoast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cab0a1/32.png) [@edwardcoast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwardcoast)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2017, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/51 "2017-07-14T18:56:02Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Bitchy wife syndrome? Mine does it too. Iā€™ll do the dishes only to find a bowl or something in the bedroom and plop in the sink. Sheā€™ll see the bowl and yell at me ā€œfor never doing the dishes!ā€ Yeah, but you never actually do the dishes all the time. Come on, we know you! šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397/52 "2017-07-15T06:34:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \*occasionally I clean plant pots in the kitchen sink. Youā€™d think that my washing the vast majority of soil particles down the drain would be sufficient, but no. :mad: Nope. For such a use you have to restore the sink to a condition _better_ than it was before you started - but you donā€™t gain any points by pointing out that it is so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-name-for-this-situation/790397.md?page=2)