As I’ve said before, the brain is a cognitive miser. Unless it can get value for itself, it stops paying attention. - Oren Klaff

We don’t need facts and explanations to convince ourselves. We know what we like. Even when we try the rational approach — making lists of pros and cons — if it does not come out how we like, we go back and redo the list until it does.

The two parts of the attention cocktail are novelty and tension, which in a pitch work together in a feedback loop for about 20 minutes until — no matter what you do or how hard you try — they get out of balance and then stop working altogether.

Start-ups often prepare absurdly aggressive and optimistic plans, which have a very low likelihood of success, just to maximize the company’s perceived dollar value.” Your financial projections, whether for a product or a company, are supposed to answer such basic questions as, How strong is the company? What if plans go awry, does the company have enough cash to last a few bad quarters? Do you know how to budget well?