Percentage abuse
It really annoys me when people say rubbish like "I gave it 110%".


You can't give it more than 100%. Fact.
( Barbarossa is not my real name, Wed 7 May 2008, 16:14, 9 replies)

The Apprentice
is by a long way the worst for this. Someone said they would give 150% last week. What?
(Rotten_Cointreau is a proper scientician, Wed 7 May 2008, 16:16, closed)

Not always
My sister's become convinced that percentages above 100 simply don't exist.

So if I, for example, have £100, and I gain £200, and I call it a 200% increase, her mind can't handle this, and is insistent that 100% is the maximum percentage.
( Thinker, Wed 7 May 2008, 16:18, closed)

^^^^
Aye... You can give 150% of a previous figure or delivery for example... last week you blew 4 goats, this week you're seeing 50% more goaty-action: 150% of last weeks' action, and shall be blowing 6 goats.

Saying that above 100% doesn't exist is like saying you can't go above 1:1 ratio... Of course you can.
( Humpty Dumpty was Pushed Is unaware of having any limits., Wed 7 May 2008, 16:29, closed)

While percentages above 100
Do exist, would it not be fair to say that you can only give 100% of your own effort? Like if I have a cake and I offer it to you, I can give you any percentage of that cake up to 100%, but not more?

Whereas sales of cakes can increase, say 300% over a period of time...

Oh fuck, I just bored myself with that explanation. Sorry, nothing to see here, move on.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Wed 7 May 2008, 16:32, closed)

Of course, there's a limit
to how much one can give or take, percentage-wise, of a finite number of.. something...

Like.. I could blow 4 goats of a ten-goat herd; I could increase that to 150%, and make it six goats.. but I couldn't blow 150% of the herd.

That'd hurt my throat.
( Thinker, Wed 7 May 2008, 16:38, closed)

Bad figure of speech
"Giving 100%" is a pretty bad expression to use in any case - if you ever could give 100% effort you'd logically be dead afterwards.
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Wed 7 May 2008, 16:54, closed)

Percentages
are for thickos who can't deal with decimal points. Why don't we simply say 'I'm blowing 1.5 times the number of goats I blew last week'. I concede that the phrase 'I'm giving it 1' rather than 'I'm giving it 100%' is open to misinterpretation....

Oh God! It's only Wednesday and already I'm talking about blowing multiples of goats. Can this really not wait until a Friday night in the pub!? Damn you all! :)
(Dr. Scambolic, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:16, closed)

The phrase
"I'm giving it 1" is classic.

"My effort is approaching unity"
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Wed 7 May 2008, 18:22, closed)

This is a bit late so I doubt anyones gonna read this
But the point is you are going beyond what you previously thoguht was your maximum effort.

For example I read in Take a Break one day that a mans daughter got trapped under a car. Naturally an average sized man would not be able to lift a car to free the girl. But by producing 150% effort he managed to budge it just enough for the girl to move free.

You know what I mean anyway
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Thu 8 May 2008, 10:38, closed)