I went out of my way to go with 36 spokes, particularly on the rear wheel. When I was building it it was a lot easier to find 32 spoke hubs and rims, but I held out for 36.

I had previously had significant trouble with spoke breakage. I weigh 180, 35 pound bike, 8 miles a day of gravel road, but really the problem was that the wheel the bike came with was under-tensioned.

On the front wheel, with rim brakes, I'd be OK with going with 32 spoke wheels. I went with 36 because of the disc brake.