Comment by David_W on Evaluability (And Cheap Holiday Shopping) · 2007-11-29T15:55:09.000Z · LW · GW

This advice on Christmas gifts will only work if you leave the price tag on, or if your recipient is sophisticated enough to recognize, say, that a particular scarf is worth $45. I once opened a package that I received in a gift-swap game that contained a (to my eyes, rather ordinary) Christmas ornament. My face must not have shown the proper appreciation, as my wife then whispered to me that this was a very expensive ornament. Evidently the givers had instinctively followed the "expensive junk" philosophy but the effect was nearly lost on unsophisticated me.