Where did 'in three months' come from?

[lingohot]

Around 10 (?) years ago a thing called "90 days challenge" (diet and all kinds of things) became popular. I think it might stem from there.

[Khayyam]

And in the fitness world, it's either "results in three months" or "results in 10 weeks." That's federal law.

Sorry, but what does "That's federal law"
mean?

I'm joking. I'm saying it's so common for fitness programs to be billed as 10-week or three-month that you would think there was a law mandating it.

[Khayyam]

Around 10 (?) years ago a thing called "90 days challenge" (diet and all kinds of things) became popular. I think it might stem from there.

It goes back further than that--how far, I'm not sure. In the late 90s, the big thing was Bill Phillips's three-month Body-for-Life program, and then in the early 2000s all the competing mass-gain programs I was considering seemed to be three-month programs.

[Le Baron]

It goes back further than that--how far, I'm not sure. In the late 90s, the big thing was Bill Phillips's three-month Body-for-Life program, and then in the early 2000s all the competing mass-gain programs I was considering seemed to be three-month programs.

Older than that I'd say. I have an early 1960s magazine (old ones from my uncle) with Reg Park saying that his full-body routine for the 'busy man' will transform the reader in three months.

[tiia]

Benny Lewis is the one who popularized the "fluent in three months" formula in the online language learning community and has made it his personal trademark. Can't remember what his rationale for this title was.

Had in mind,that it was mainly about the visa regulations. Just searched for the explanation and found this video here (I only listend to the first two minutes, that should be enough)
Basically he just says, that it was first the common visa regulation, but later also the idea to put a limited "not to short, not to long" type of timeframe to the whole thing.

[Cainntear]

Benny Lewis is the one who popularized the "fluent in three months" formula in the online language learning community and has made it his personal trademark. Can't remember what his rationale for this title was.

Had in mind,that it was mainly about the visa regulations. Just searched for the explanation and found this video here (I only listend to the first two minutes, that should be enough)
Basically he just says, that it was first the common visa regulation, but later also the idea to put a limited "not to short, not to long" type of timeframe to the whole thing.

In other words, he's just making a virtue of a necessity. His quests were limited by immigration law, but the limit gave a pleasing number that was popular with his target market -- a number that has been used by many people in many spheres for decades, if not longer.

I don't know if it's just the product of most of my ancestors having evolved in the temperate zone with four distinction seasons, but to me 3 months is a satisfying period of time. And it's also plausible as a period of time for accomplishing something complex. 100 days has a similar effect but sounds too gimmicky.

I'd go a bit deeper and further than that.

Three months has a couple of things in its favour -- three is a small number, but a month is a big enough time to make it feel substantial enough to be realistic. "Arabic in three weeks" is going to look like a scam, "Arabic in three years" is going to feel like too long (even though it's maybe more realistic.

As such, "...in three months" can appeal to lazy people while letting them convince themselves their putting time in.

The matter of "90 days" vs "3 months" is kind of intriguing. I'm guessing that there's a false confidence in it being "serious" when there's a very technical looking number like that... even though it's making mathematically the same claim (because if you do it January, February and March it's literally 90 days... except on a leap year.

100 days may look liike it has the same false sense of precision, but 100 is a number that just looks too round to be accurate -- 90 days feels more precise, because if they were going for an approximate number, you'd imagine they'd say 100. And then there's the fact that 100 looks like a big number, and 90 gets power from the simple fact of being less than 100, and being less than something you might cosider the first of the big numbers.

3 months or 90 days... whichever way you look at it, it's sitting in a psychological "sweet spot" between looking too easy and looking too hard....

[jeff_lindqvist]

Most Assimil courses out there have ~100 lessons (and those who have done a few courses know that it takes ~150 days to complete one).

Then we have the ”Methode 90”, e.g. ”The French Language of Today in 90 Lessons” - possibly 90 days (at least someone on HTLAL once mentioned a ”Le russe en 90 lecons et en 90 jours”).

The Linguaphone courses (from the 1970s?) had 50 lessons. That can't mean one per day, but possibly one per week (nearly a year).

Teach Yourself? Colloquial? 12-20 lessons? One per week? That makes 3-5 months.

Whatever the material, it'll keep the learner busy for months.

[PeterMollenburg]

And in the fitness world, it's either "results in three months" or "results in 10 weeks." That's federal law.

Sorry, but what does "That's federal law"
mean?

I'm joking. I'm saying it's so common for fitness programs to be billed as 10-week or three-month that you would think there was a law mandating it.

Ah, right. Thank you for explaining, Khayyam.

[LearningCroatian]

I also think that everyone has very unrealistic expectations when it comes to language learning. English is not my mother tongue and it took me years to reach a "decent" level. I'm now learning Croatian and I'm sure it'll take me a while to get there too.

[koolawant4]

It has been drilled in my head since college to use 3's as much as possible when marketing something. 1 isn't enough, 2 is a strange number, 4 and up are too much. That's why you'll often see 3 examples, 3 advantages, 3 interviews, etc etc. (you'll also notice in English the x, x, and x is one of the most common examples of listing things, as I've just shown!)

There are some studies about how the human mind reacts to it, but I didn't pay that much attention in class. That, and I learned to stop questioning things that work extremely well I just figured he was using one of the oldest tricks in the book to appeal to a mass audience

Source: am marketer