Sell painkillers, not vitamins, the classic business advice goes.

The vitamin seller aims to help you stay healthy in the long run— to help you avoid future pain and trial by keeping you clear of sickness.

However, the painkiller seller has some advantages. If you're experiencing pain right now, a painkiller offers immediate relief. The benefit is instant and tangible. Unlike the vague and uncertain nature of future illnesses, pain is immediate and unmistakable.

Knowing if a painkiller worked is easy, as the pain will disappear. It's hard to tell if a vitamin worked. If I don't get sick, was it the vitamins, my sleep, exercise, or, well, anything else that did it?

This dynamic can lead to unfortunate consequences. We may prioritise our current needs over future well-being, such as fixing a broken car when it breaks rather than maintaining it. We need help saving money for the future. We tackle the "urgent" and neglect the "important-not urgent."  We might overestimate the likelihood of making good choices in the future. In essence, it's easy to downplay future challenges compared to our current predicament.

implementing security measures vs. fixing bugs

looking after your car vs. fixing your car when it breaks down

doing daily exercises vs. going to the doctor when you're sick

shopping and preparing food vs. ordering takeaway now

making a product easier to use vs. making the product compliant

preparing fruit to eat later vs. grabbing a cookie now

insulating your house vs. putting the heating on now

Some see business as selling candy, vitamins, and painkillers. Candy is a treat, but it's easy to live without. Vitamins promise to make life better, but you can do without them. Painkillers are must-haves as they solve an immediate, tangible need.

Also see: present bias, tragedy of the commons, the dilution effect, the Shirky principle.

Painkillers and vitamins

The nocebo effect is how the expectation of pain or negative effects of a treatment increases the chances people will feel them — even if they're aren't any. So, tell someone that a treatment will hurt or have side-effects and they're now more likely to feel that pain or find something wrong.

Taken together with the placebo effect I guess we might do well, for normal affairs, to let people know that what they will get will probably help them and not raise unnecessary expectations that something might hurt.

The nocebo effect

The placebo effect is the remarkable yet commonplace fact that when people expect a treatment to help, it can, even if the treatment doesn't actually do anything.

The placebo effect

Seriously, I am not qualified to give medical advice. This is not a recommendation. Seek advice from your doctor. We have been told this from ours several times.

Medicine sketches