Everything we have published, newest first.
Wardrobe
Two of the most photographed people in Paris in the 1960s and 1970s wore the era's most daring clothes for the camera, and a small, steady set of clothes for everything else. What a personal uniform did for each of them.
Effect
Speeding up effort or spending as a goal or reward gets closer, even when the progress was handed to you.
Effect
The moment a store's design pulls you from your errand into browsing, so you buy things you never planned.
Effect
Getting used to any improvement, so the lift from a new purchase fades while the higher baseline remains.
The Effect
Sellers know the first sale is the hardest one. After that, the pull toward a matching set does much of their work. Eight tactics, how to spot each one, and what to do instead.
The Effect
Each rule comes with the reason it works, how to run it, and the most common way it fails. Use one, or stack them for a big purchase.
The Effect
The short answer: dee-duh-ROH, with no t at the end. The longer answer covers the French, the two English stress patterns in the dictionaries, and the mistakes people make.
Playbook
Impulse buys are rarely random. They cluster around a few times, moods and prompts that you can learn to spot. Find yours, make buying slower at exactly those points, and have something else to do when the urge arrives.
Effect
Preferring a smaller reward now over a larger one later, even after planning the opposite at a distance.
Effect
Valuing things more because you built or assembled them yourself, even when the result is rough.
Effect
Feeling a sudden, strong urge to buy something right away, and buying it without having planned to.
Effect
Spending to match the people around you, so their purchases quietly set the standard for yours.
The Essay
Diderot shows off the painting he has just begged God to spare, promises that the debts will be paid, and ends the essay with a line borrowed from an ancient philosopher and a secret that is not quite true.
Effect
Treating a good choice, like a workout or a saved paycheck, as permission for an indulgence afterward.
Effect
Spending rises to meet each raise, so a higher income brings a higher cost of living instead of savings.
Playbook
A raise tends to disappear in the first few months, a little at a time and mostly into costs that repeat. Decide where it goes before the first bigger paycheck arrives, and it stays where you put it.
Effect
Losses feel larger than gains of the same size, so avoiding a loss can matter more than winning.
Effect
Treating money differently depending on where it came from or what it is for, though every dollar spends the same.
Effect
Liking something more simply because you have seen it often, even without noticing the repetition.
Playbook
For every new thing that comes home, one thing of the same kind leaves. A simple rule with three weak spots, and a stricter version for the drawers and shelves you want to shrink.