Meet Cheryl: Your coliving nemesis - Supernuclear

At Radish, we invented the notion of a “Cheryl” to be the repository of all those disrespectful things that people do in a communal living environment. When no one takes responsibility, we say “Cheryl did it.” Let’s unmask Cheryl. Suppose you live alone and cook 10 meals for yourself per week. And suppose you are quite conscientious: You clean up all the dishes 97% of the time. What this means is once per month you’ll find a dish in your sink in the morning. No big deal, every month or so you find yourself saying “silly me, forgot to put away this dish last night.” And then you’ll clean it. Now suppose you live with 12 people, each of whom cooks 10 meals per week. And suppose those people clean up 97% of the time. How often will you see a mess in the kitchen? Mathematically …. Every two days. That’s Cheryl. She is always leaving a mess! Law of Large Numbers I clean up 97% of the time. You clean up 97% of the time. Cheryl is the one who is a slob. (Forgotten: Last Tuesday I was Cheryl f

At Radish, we invented the notion of a “Cheryl” to be the repository of all those disrespectful things that people do in a communal living environment. When no one takes responsibility, we say “Cheryl did it.” Let’s unmask Cheryl. Suppose you live alone and cook 10 meals for yourself per week. And suppose you are quite conscientious: You clean up all the dishes 97% of the time. What this means is once per month you’ll find a dish in your sink in the morning. No big deal, every month or so you find yourself saying “silly me, forgot to put away this dish last night.” And then you’ll clean it. No