6 is a ✨perfect number✨, the sum of its (positive) proper divisors. 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.

Any Mersenne prime m, when substituted into m (m + 1) / 2 will yield a ✨perfect number✨, as foretold by Euclid and Euler. The founder of geometry, and the founder of so many things they had to start naming them after the second founder, united after two millennia.

6, though, is special among ✨perfect numbers✨. It also equals the product of its proper divisors. 1 * 2 * 3 = 6. It divides evenly into halves and thirds.

Perhaps, in your salaciousness, you would like to divide evenly into fourths and fifths. Oh, what's that over there? It's 60 (a multiple of ✨6✨, I must note, like every number that divides evenly into halves and thirds), the number of seconds in a minute and the number of minutes in an hour. The number of hours in a day, 24, also is a multiple of ✨6✨.

“Ah,” you might say, “365 days per year isn't a multiple of 6!” Well, 366 is a multiple, and everyone knows leap years are the only real years anyway. Non-leap years pour the milk first, leap years pour the cereal first.¹

All around you live arbitrary values. How many should I buy? How many should I try? How many should I tie-dye?² The next time you get to decide an arbitrary value, consider ✨6✨.