The Hidden Cost of Keeping Up Appearances

We spend an astonishing amount of money on signals — for an audience that is mostly thinking about their own signals, not ours.

I ran the numbers on a year of 'image' spending once and was genuinely embarrassed. Not by the total, but by how little of it I actually remembered enjoying.

The fix isn't austerity. It's spending loudly on what you love and quietly on everything else.