Matt's Hypothesis of Lost Things

When you lose an item and have looked everywhere for it (including the last place you looked) but just can't find it, if you will simply purchase a replacement item you are guaranteed to find the item within the next week.

2 3DS XLs = 6DSXXLs?

Exhibit A: We now have 2 Nintendo 3DS XLs, because Santa brought a game that Nathan wanted with the guarantee that we had the 3DS already. Come Christmas morning, we couldn't find the 3DS anywhere. After looking around for a week, I decided to just buy a new one (used, at a pawn shop). Fast forward to cleaning out the garage 5 days later, I open the only box in the garage that I hadn't opened in the last week and what do I find? Now we have 2 Nintendo 3DS XLs.

Now we can really fight over the volume

Exhibit B: The TV remote had been missing for weeks. We had to use the app on our phones. We looked under everything and in all the chair/couch cracks and cushions. I finally decide to buy a replacement and order one from Amazon. Less than an 4 hours after ordering, I stick my hand down in a chair cushion and come back out with the remote. The previous one had already shipped. So now we have 2 TV remotes. Always good to have a spare.

Matt's Corollary of Lost Things: The more times you invoke MHoLT, the shorter the time between repurchase and finding.* **

*More data is needed to determine the exact shape the the curve.
**Rather than the number of times, it might be related to the cost of the item.
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