On Advertising
“Advertising is legalized lying.” – H.G. Wells
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“Advertising is legalized lying.” – H.G. Wells
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In his new book, Detroit City is the Place to Be, Mark Binelli describes the scene outside his residence in language so wonderful I had to share it with you: “By 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning, when I’d step out to buy a newspaper, I’d spot the tailgaters bundled up like deer hunters, clutching copied…
In a recent post, I reproduce the figure showing the “stickiness” of odometer readings, when it comes to the price of used cars. Much better to sell your car at 49,999 miles rather than 50,001 miles. But here’s another sticky threshold, that was reported on at 538.com. It shows that when airplane flights leave 40…
In recent posts, I’ve presented several interesting pictures of how arbitrary thresholds influence behavior. I showed how airplane pilots speed up flights to make on-time arrivals, but don’t speed up late flights that won’t make it on time. I’ve shown that the price of used cars changes when the mileage on the odometer passes arbitrary round…
In 1996, a man wrote to Carl Sagan asking him the distance to heaven. Sagan was a very public agnostic. He replied brilliantly: “Thanks for your letter. Nothing like the Christian notion of heaven has been found out to about 10 billion light years. (One light year is almost six trillion miles.) With best wishes…”…
I do not pretend to have consistent, easily categorized political views. That’s why I call myself a “flaming moderate.” But one attitude I hold pretty consistently is suspicion of concentrated power—in government, in industry, and especially in government and industry! That’s why I felt a kindred spirit in Teddy Roosevelt, as quoted in Morris’s amazing…
Here is a link to a story about a very good friend of mine, Scott Mackler, who I wrote about in my book You’re Stronger Than You Think. Scott was diagnosed with ALS almost 15 years ago. His first symptoms were when he lost grip of a tennis racket, playing against me. And I thought…