53 things from this book went into her brain. Here are the first 6.
Thorstein Veblen argued that the work a group treats as honourable is often set by status, not by how useful the work is to everyone else.
Thorstein Veblen noted that what seems important about a set of facts depends on the interest we bring to them, so the same facts can be sorted in different ways.
Thorstein Veblen describes an instinct of workmanship: people take real satisfaction in effective work and dislike futile effort, and that pride can be seen in what they make.
Thorstein Veblen argued that much of the drive to accumulate wealth comes from wanting the respect that wealth brings, not only from what the goods themselves can do.
Thorstein Veblen observed that once wealth became the easiest visible sign of success, people felt they had to acquire it just to keep a good name.
Thorstein Veblen noted that most people's self-respect rests on the respect of their neighbours, so falling behind the group's standard can hurt how we see ourselves.
Thorstein Veblen observed that a new standard of comfort soon stops feeling like enough, because people keep measuring themselves against those around them.
Thorstein Veblen argued that wealth or power only earns esteem when others can see it, and that outward signs of it also steady a person's own sense of self-respect.
Thorstein Veblen suggested that good manners usually begin as a real wish to show goodwill and ease, though they can later become a display of rank.
Thorstein Veblen observed that customs which begin as a symbol of something often outlast that meaning and come to be valued for their own sake.
Thorstein Veblen observed that a practice which first made sense comes to feel right in itself, and it only lasts while it still fits the habits that support it.
Thorstein Veblen noted that the more elaborate a household's possessions become to keep up appearances, the more time and help they demand, so display creates its own burdens.
Thorstein Veblen pointed out that a lavish gathering can have warm, sociable reasons and still serve a display purpose, and both motives can be true at once.
Thorstein Veblen observed that each social layer tends to take the way of life of the layer just above as its ideal of decency, so keeping up appearances spreads down through a whole society.
Thorstein Veblen noted that in large, mobile communities, where strangers only know us by what they see, visible signs count for far more than reputation built slowly among people who know us.
Thorstein Veblen argued that almost everyone has a built-in urge to accomplish something and shape things that are useful, and that this urge shows more clearly when work is free rather than forced.
Thorstein Veblen warned that we often judge taste or intelligence as if they were refinement, when the gap between people is really a gap in money.
Thorstein Veblen pointed out that most goods are both useful and showy, and the fair test is whether they add to a person's life as a whole, not whether they have come to feel necessary.
Thorstein Veblen observed that spending habits stretch easily as income grows but are hard to scale back, so a higher income can quietly become a higher floor.
Thorstein Veblen observed that gains in efficiency often get swallowed by rising expectations of what a good life looks like, so people work just as hard for a higher standard instead of gaining time.
Thorstein Veblen noted that most people spend to fit in with what seems normal rather than to show off on purpose, and that this quiet habit of conforming can drive spending as much as any deliberate display.
Thorstein Veblen argued that much of the pleasure we take in a costly product is really pleasure in its price, dressed up as a sense of beauty. Useful for any business thinking about perceived value.
Thorstein Veblen argued that differences in taste between social groups come from different ideas of what is proper to enjoy, not from any built-in difference in how people see beauty.
Thorstein Veblen noted that the most satisfying everyday things are often simple designs that plainly show what they are for, and that this kind of beauty does not need to cost much.
Thorstein Veblen observed that people can come to look down on anything inexpensive even when it works just as well, and then insist on paying for an extra margin of show.
Thorstein Veblen observed that buyers often judge goods by their finish and presentation more than by how well they perform, which is worth remembering when a business presents what it sells.
Thorstein Veblen argued that social norms rarely invent new ways of doing things; they act as a filter, and whatever new idea survives is the one that fits the norm.
Thorstein Veblen observed that people will often go short on comfort to keep up a respectable appearance, so much of what we spend on clothes is for how we look to others rather than for protection.
Thorstein Veblen suggested that fashions keep changing because each new style only pretends to have a real purpose, and people eventually tire of the pretence and move on.
Thorstein Veblen noted that as audiences grow more discerning, cruder signals of status give way to subtler ones that only an informed circle can read. Worth remembering when deciding how loudly to market a brand.
Thorstein Veblen argued that habits of thought outlast the conditions that created them, so people usually change only when circumstances force them to.
Thorstein Veblen noted that people tend to adjust their views reluctantly, usually under outside pressure, and that those shielded from everyday pressure adapt most slowly.
Thorstein Veblen observed that a way of working that suited earlier conditions may still function under new ones, but it is usually not the best fit, and it could do better if it were adapted.
Thorstein Veblen noted that the people who have to change their way of life are the ones most ready to accept new standards, because the need is felt in their own pay packets.
Thorstein Veblen argued that changing habits takes mental energy, so people who are stretched thin and people who are comfortable both tend to stick with what they know, for different reasons.
Thorstein Veblen contrasted the comfortable motto "whatever is, is right" with the view that every institution is somewhat out of date, and that the second is the more useful habit to keep.
Thorstein Veblen separated business, which aims at pecuniary gain, from industry, which aims at making things that serve human needs. Keeping those two aims apart helps a founder see what the work is really for.
Thorstein Veblen warned that a person driven only by self-interest would be of little use to modern industry, because the work depends on steadiness, care and cooperation as well as on looking after one's own gain.
Thorstein Veblen argued that good work depends on a genuine interest in the work itself, not only on getting ahead of others, and that this interest is what keeps complex work going.
Thorstein Veblen observed that people find purposeless effort tedious and want their activity to point at a real end, which is why a visible purpose matters in any routine.
Thorstein Veblen held that the instinct of workmanship is older and deeper than the urge to compete for standing, so a life lived only for contests falls short of it.
Thorstein Veblen argued that cunning and ferocity serve a person's own rise in a contest for standing, but do little for the common life of a community.
Thorstein Veblen observed that modern work runs on cause and effect, so the intelligence it asks for is a quick grasp of how one thing leads to the next.
Thorstein Veblen held that the impulses of charity, sociability and a sense of belonging to the common life pull against the habit of showing off through waste.
Thorstein Veblen noticed that many people who run work take real pride in seeing it done well, even apart from the profit it brings.
Thorstein Veblen noted that even good works done partly for standing show that a non-competitive interest in helping others is a real, accepted motive in modern life.
Thorstein Veblen warned that organisations can drift from their first purpose toward looking respectable, until the stated aim is only a front and the real work fades.
Thorstein Veblen observed that a vanity motive often hides behind good-sounding labels, quietly steering well-meant effort away from the work that actually helps, often without the person noticing.
Thorstein Veblen held that habits of thought formed in an earlier economy lose their hold once they stop fitting the way people now earn a living.
Thorstein Veblen observed that established institutions tended to accept new knowledge only after it had become commonplace outside them, so new ideas often met a cool welcome.
Thorstein Veblen argued that much of modern science grew out of practical work with real materials, and that many of its builders worked outside the schools.
Thorstein Veblen observed that people often judge the worth of goods, and of learning, by decorative finish rather than by what the thing actually does.
Thorstein Veblen pointed out that cumbersome, old-fashioned language is often used to look respectable, while plain and direct speech carries more force.
