The sturdy shoes nobody praises may be doing the most useful work of the outfit.

Compliments follow what is noticeable, and what is noticeable is rarely what is working hardest. Nobody remarks on well-made boots, and yet they are the reason the day was bearable, the reason you could stand for three hours and still be pleasant company at the end of it. The same asymmetry runs through most of life: the reliable thing is invisible precisely because it never gives anyone trouble.

When you are next tempted to praise the striking choice, praise the useful one instead. And in your own life, spend on the things that will hold you up rather than the things that will be mentioned.