That’s cute. I’m amused that when I stopped to make my five-second guess, I thought to myself, “it looks like 250-300, but I know it must be more, so let’s say 400.” Then I read on, saw the author had done the exact same thing, and thought, “oh, must be even bigger then.” Yup.
For credit cards or shopping on a budget, I make a point of rounding up to the next dollar as I go, so as to consciously overestimate the total cost so far.
I suspect that this phenomenon arises because humans file 100 as “a really big number,” and 20 as “a reasonable/moderate number,” especially when thinking about the cost of purchases. It doesn’t “feel” quite right that 100 is only five 20s!
Or, an example that still boggles me: $100 is only two new big-name video games on any of the most recent generation of consoles.
That’s cute. I’m amused that when I stopped to make my five-second guess, I thought to myself, “it looks like 250-300, but I know it must be more, so let’s say 400.” Then I read on, saw the author had done the exact same thing, and thought, “oh, must be even bigger then.” Yup.
For credit cards or shopping on a budget, I make a point of rounding up to the next dollar as I go, so as to consciously overestimate the total cost so far.
I suspect that this phenomenon arises because humans file 100 as “a really big number,” and 20 as “a reasonable/moderate number,” especially when thinking about the cost of purchases. It doesn’t “feel” quite right that 100 is only five 20s!
Or, an example that still boggles me: $100 is only two new big-name video games on any of the most recent generation of consoles.
In Australia it’s only one, sometimes not even that.