People who are a little more hard-headed, humorous, and intellectually independent, see the rather simple joke; and are not impressed by this or any other form of self-praise. Almost any other men in almost any other age would have seen the joke. If you had said to a man in the Stone Age, 'Ugg says Ugg makes the best stone hatchets,' he would have

Shopping is no longer fun though when every single product, down to water bottles and toothpaste, has some sort of status points attached to it . Instead of simply spending money on the stuff you like, you start thinking about what every purchase says about you

marketers had the opening to turn buying from conformity to competition. Previously, you had to have a new car and a white fridge because it was your duty. But now you needed the coolest sports car and the brightest clothes to express your individuality,

It was John Kenneth Galbraith, the hyperliterate economic sage, who coined the phrase “conventional wisdom.” He did not consider it a compliment. “We associate truth with convenience,” he wrote, “with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We al