Similarity-Attraction Effect

You have felt Similarity-Attraction Effect even if you have never read it. Reading it simply gives your experience a label and a little dignity.

The effect is strongest precisely when nobody mentions it. Awareness does not kill it, but awareness does give you a vote. Without awareness you are not even in the room where the decision is made.

What this concept offers is a pause — one extra beat between what happens and what you do about it. Civilisation, someone said, is measured in that beat.

A rupee saved loudly impresses people for a day. A rupee invested quietly feeds them for years. The bazaar respects the first; life rewards the second.

Money is a good clerk and a terrible master; the arrangement is entirely up to us. That is all. A small tool, honestly kept, beats a large one admired.