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Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is that specific numbers, and in particular, specific times, can be more memorable and seem more legitimate than round ones.

If you know that, you can use it to your advantage.

So whenever I see a round number for something, I get a little suspicious.

Lately, it was a slew of CEOs declaring that AI was doing 20% or 30% of the work in their

companies.

Really?

Do we have a good way of measuring everyone's exact output? And how fascinating that the number was round.

As it is, I suspect these are just guesses, just as if someone claims an 80-hour workweek. It's probably not exactly right.

But here's the thing. If someone told me that time to product

delivery had dropped 27% in one unit because of AI, that would seem plausible. Specific numbers feel

like they must be based on something. So they seem more believable. They are also more memorable.

What does this have to do with time? Well, when I wrote about the problem with round numbers on

Vanderhacks, my substack newsletter, a reader mentioned that she would often tell her family

they needed to leave at a very specific time, like 123, not 115, not 130,

no, 123. I love this, and I think it is a great tip. A round number like 115 or 130 is

thought to be round, as in it's not exact. And so people get ready

around that time. Those who are generally ready early will be ready early. People who are always

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