"The advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson, used to set a test for aspiring copywriters. One of the questions was simple: 'Here are two identical 25-cent coins. Sell me the one on the right.' One successful candidate understood the idea of alchemy. 'I'll take the right-hand coin and dip it in Marilyn Monroe's bag. Then I'll sell you a genuine 25-cent coin as owned by Marilyn Monroe.'" - Rory Sutherland, "Alchemy."

The story speaks for itself.

Two things, similar in appearance and makeup, are not necessarily equal.

In the same way, the solutions to your problems aren't always the most sensible path.

What makes two musicians of equal skill better than the other? I'm going to say it's reputation and perception, especially if one of them has performed with a famous artist.

Here's an example, I think about waiting in lines. No one likes to do that, and I hate it.

The logical response from a store owner, "let's make check out as fast as possible." Right? This solves the problem of waiting in line.

Well, what if we didn't focus on checkout, but instead focused on the process of getting what I need faster.

Maybe there's an app that would inform the store I'm on my way. Then the app would notify me of the best routes to take in the store to get what I need?

I might still end up waiting in line, but the entire time spent away from home might have been less. So was my problem waiting in line? Or was it being away from home?

The way we look at problems can change the way we see the answer.

1+1 might, in fact, equal 3.

And, as we saw with Marilyn,
It's all in your perception.