it's all about perception

reality isn't a particular good guide for human happiness

choose your frame of reference and the perceived value and, therefore, the actual value is completely transformed. 

this is what should be done if someone has to take a huge bottle of 100 pills: give them 60 blue pills and 40 red pills and tell them to take the blue ones first. the chance for people to get to the end is much greater when there is a milestone somewhere in the middle.

once you have a very, very large budget, you actually look for expensive things to spend it on.

what is wrong with placebo pills? they are the perfect pills: they do not cost any money, they make an incredible work, they do not have side effect and if they do, they are imaginary anyway so you can ignore them

if something's worth guarding then it's something worth stealing. when you want people to become curious about something they think they don't like, pay guards and specifically tell them to not guard it very well.

when you can't smoke, if you stand and stare out of the window on your own, you're an antisocial, friendless idiot. if you stand and stare out of the window on your own with a cigarette, you're a philosopher.

from an ad man i am beginning to love, Rory Sutherland.