As an attorney, I often encounter this "Labor Perception Bias."
"Why is your hourly rate so high?" (It's not relative to other attorneys, but that's another story.)
"I just asked you a question, and you already knew the answer!" (Quite thoroughly, right?)
In 1998, Citibank and The Travelers Insurance Company merged.
They hired legendary designer Paula Scher to create a new logo.
In their first meeting, on a napkin, Scher drew what became the iconic Citi logo.
As Scher got up to leave the room, someone from the Citi team asked,
How can it be that it’s done in a second?
“It’s done in a second and 34 years," Scher replied. “It’s done in a second [and] every experience and everything that’s in my head.”
Takeaway 1:
As Scher has become a master of her craft, she's experienced an interesting problem.
"A lot of clients like to buy process," she explains. "they think they're not getting their money's worth [if] you solve the problem too fast."
This is known as the "Labor Perception Bias."
It's an interesting phenomenon: we are generally impatient, yet, we are skeptical if, for instance, we're at a fancy restaurant and the food comes out only minutes after we ordered.
One of famous examples of the Labor Perception Bias is the parable of the engineer and the hammer:
A factory owner hired an engineer to fix a broken-down engine. The engineer inspected the engine for one minute, took out his hammer, hammered the engine once, and then started the engine with no problem.
The engineer charged the factory owner $5000. The factory owner was shocked, protested that the engineer had worked for only one minute, and asked for an itemized bill. The engineer sent the factory owner an itemized bill:
Hammering the engine: $5
Knowing where to hammer the engine: $4,995
Takeaway 2:
On my desk, there is a notecard that says, “All success is a lagging indicator.”
The line comes from one of my favorite Ryan Holiday articles. “When a day’s writing goes well,” he writes, “it’s a lagging indicator of hours and hours spent researching and thinking… Receiving a promotion is a lagging indicator of a lot of quality work. Delivering a keynote with confidence is a lagging indicator of a lot of preparation.”
Knowing where to hammer the engine is a lagging indicator of the years and years working with hammers and on engines.
And Paula Scher’s ability to create an iconic logo in a second is a lagging indicator of 34 years spent honing her craft.
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“When you sit down to create something...what you create is a culmination of everything you’ve seen and done previous to that point.” — Tinker Hatfield
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@FinPhilosopher 4 Runner hands down. I loved my Wrangler in high school, but I only paid 7,700 with 40k miles on it back then and the 4 Runner is much more practical (esp. than 2 door) and a better value.
Real home prices in the US are currently almost 10% MORE expensive than they were in 2008.
In fact, real home prices are now 80% ABOVE the 130-year historical average, according to Reventure.
This means that even on an inflation adjusted basis, home prices have never been more expensive.
Meanwhile, housing supply is 40% below the historical average.
All while mortgage demand is at its lowest since 1994 and the median homebuyer now has a $3000/mo payment.
Truly historic times.