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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 5 days

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What can you deduce from someone without photos? Is it possible to deduce over text/from a blog? Can you talk a bit about that?

Hello! When you say without photos i'm gonna assume you mean "without seeing them or any object they own", since you go on to mention texts or blogs, but if that's not the case feel free to send another ask!

So as always my answer to "can you deduce....?" questions is yes, yes you can. Deducing over text or blogs, or any other medium that's not physically seeing a person or their belongings, is actually not that different from normal deduction, you just have to pay attention to the details. How long do they take to send a message? how does that correlate to the length of the message they send? what wording do they use? how formal is their vocabulary? what expressions or texting habits do they use? what do they abbreviate? do their habits correlate with any age group specifically like Gen Z or Boomers? do they fit that demographic? if they don't then why are they texting like it?

Again, a lot of deduction is knowing how to break down what you're seeing into the adjacent information it implies, all of these questions have answers, that either on their own, or coupled with answers to the others, will imply certain conclusions. For example someone that's taking a lot of time to type a text that ends up sending a very short one may be overthinking how to answer, or may be busy at the moment, either of these answrs can lead you down different paths. You may be able to confirm that they're busy with some other piece of information and eventually deduce what they're doing without them ever telling you, or you might be able to confirm that they're overthinking through some other means (for example if this behavior seems to be consistent throughout a day or two of texting them), and that might lead you to know how they approach social interactions, and what they think of texting as a method of communication. If it's taking them a long time to text but they're texting in a very formal manner maybe they're not used to doing that, maybe it's taking them time to find the right ways of expressing themselves formally, which would mean they're trying to make an impression and come off as someone who is formal, when they probably don't behave like that often

Another important part of using blogs, text, or other types of methods of deduction is using baselines, if you're texting someone often you can establish what their baseline is when texting, which would allow you to notice changes in said baseline as time goes on. You might be able to tell when they're upset, or busy, or angry, and if you're able to tell that, you can couple that with extra information to get further deductions. I've been able to know when people are having sex from the way that they sent a message before starting

Blogs are kind of different, you have to treat anything a person has a chance to curate like you would treat a room, most things in there are deliberately placed, which means you're gonna get information on how they want to be percieved, anything from the color of the blog to their bio. Maybe you can find things that weren't placed in the blog on purpose, this gives you info about them that is unfiltered, could mean anything from them not being too tech savy and therefore not knowing how to set up a blog, or could be something they included in the blog that they didn't mean to, which gives you a glimpse into what they're like outside of what they're trying to present in the blog

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 5 days

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What can you deduce from someone without photos? Is it possible to deduce over text/from a blog? Can you talk a bit about that?

Hello! When you say without photos i'm gonna assume you mean "without seeing them or any object they own", since you go on to mention texts or blogs, but if that's not the case feel free to send another ask!

So as always my answer to "can you deduce....?" questions is yes, yes you can. Deducing over text or blogs, or any other medium that's not physically seeing a person or their belongings, is actually not that different from normal deduction, you just have to pay attention to the details. How long do they take to send a message? how does that correlate to the length of the message they send? what wording do they use? how formal is their vocabulary? what expressions or texting habits do they use? what do they abbreviate? do their habits correlate with any age group specifically like Gen Z or Boomers? do they fit that demographic? if they don't then why are they texting like it?

Again, a lot of deduction is knowing how to break down what you're seeing into the adjacent information it implies, all of these questions have answers, that either on their own, or coupled with answers to the others, will imply certain conclusions. For example someone that's taking a lot of time to type a text that ends up sending a very short one may be overthinking how to answer, or may be busy at the moment, either of these answrs can lead you down different paths. You may be able to confirm that they're busy with some other piece of information and eventually deduce what they're doing without them ever telling you, or you might be able to confirm that they're overthinking through some other means (for example if this behavior seems to be consistent throughout a day or two of texting them), and that might lead you to know how they approach social interactions, and what they think of texting as a method of communication. If it's taking them a long time to text but they're texting in a very formal manner maybe they're not used to doing that, maybe it's taking them time to find the right ways of expressing themselves formally, which would mean they're trying to make an impression and come off as someone who is formal, when they probably don't behave like that often

Another important part of using blogs, text, or other types of methods of deduction is using baselines, if you're texting someone often you can establish what their baseline is when texting, which would allow you to notice changes in said baseline as time goes on. You might be able to tell when they're upset, or busy, or angry, and if you're able to tell that, you can couple that with extra information to get further deductions. I've been able to know when people are having sex from the way that they sent a message before starting

Blogs are kind of different, you have to treat anything a person has a chance to curate like you would treat a room, most things in there are deliberately placed, which means you're gonna get information on how they want to be percieved, anything from the color of the blog to their bio. Maybe you can find things that weren't placed in the blog on purpose, this gives you info about them that is unfiltered, could mean anything from them not being too tech savy and therefore not knowing how to set up a blog, or could be something they included in the blog that they didn't mean to, which gives you a glimpse into what they're like outside of what they're trying to present in the blog

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 5 days

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How long does it usually take you deduce in person? It's good to take your time of course, but how fast can you deduce?

Hello! Good question, so i've never actually timed myself, it's hard to do, but it depends on what i'm actually deducing.

So any individual conclussion i reach can take less than a second or it can take a couple of minutes, it depends on how consciously i need to focus and find explanations for what i'm seeing. Sometimes i look at things and the reasoning and conclusion just pop in my head in the same way that looking at "2+2" just makes 4 pop up. Other times i need to sit down and actually go through the mental monologue of "why is this here? what does this mean?" and having to answer my own questions or look for extra information

In general i'd say full rundowns of a person take me anywhere from 5-10 minutes if i'm not interacting with them, that's without counting any extra information that might pop up in that time (like if they pull out their wallet and give me a whole new object to work with). I do recommend improving your speed as much as possible, my goal is to approach the numbers seen in Sherlock as much as i can, i did a rundown of it and it averages out to about 2 minutes per deduction. I definitely haven't gotten to that yet as an average, but i've definitely deduced things extremely fast

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 7 days

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https://myqrcode.com/qr/85df04bc

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 19 days

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Can you deduce sexuality?

Hello! i think i'm gonna have to make a post about these "can you deduce..." questions cause the answer's technically always the same: yes

By it's very nature, deduction can be applied to anything, this is sort of like asking "can you drive me to [insert location]", the answer's technically always yes, it just depends on if you know the route, if you now the place you're in well enough, if you have a map or gps, if you have a car, if you have gas, etc. But assuming everything's in order and you know what you're doing, yeah you can drive basically anywhere that's not cut off by a whole ocean. In the same way, as long as everything's in order, you have the right skills, and you know what you're doing, yes, you can deduce basically anything

Now, to focus on sexuality specifically, like every other question i've answered (and probably will keep answering) about how to deduce specific stuff, it's just a matter of using what's available to you. Ask yourself, objectively, what would be connected to sexuality, and then look for those things

For example, any sexuality apart from heterosexuality has strong connections to the LGBTQ+ community, and people who have strong connections to that community tend to want to showcase it using pins, or stickers, or pronouns in their bio, or a plethora of other stuff. Now, does this mean that's irrefutable proof that someone's gay for example? no, but it's one clue that gets you closer to that potential conclussion. Now say that this person has a pin of the gay pride flag, well there you go, there's not many other explanations for that, you deduced that they're gay, not a difficult deduction, but a deduction nonetheless.

Assuming the situation is more complex than that, well you'll need to find more evidence, what other things are related to different sexualities? Well, at least when we deal with straight, gay, lesbian, and bi individuals who don't fall into the handful of categories that involve having to know someone or their personality to experience physical attraction, then you're gonna see them show signs of being physically attracted to certain people. Anything from the typical dilation of pupils and elevated heart rate, to just straight up checking people out, and that might just be a dead give away. Basically what i'm trying to get at is: like everything else in deduction, look for adjacent things that point towards what you're trying to find out

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 19 days

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здравствуйте, вы знаете, как определить измену?

Hello! fascinating that you decided to ask this in what seems to be russian, but i'll answer it regardless. For anyone that doesn't speak russian they're asking how to tell if someone's cheating.

Now, this kind of thing is sort of like the whole deal of telling if someone's lying. You're not gonna find anything that tells you someone's cheating with 100% certainty, there's no clue or residue one can identify that inherently points towards cheating, just like there's no body language cue or facial expression that points towards someone lying. Rather you're gonna want to use the tools at your disposal to look for clues that are specific to the situation you find yourself in, things that don't add up, contradictions between what you're deducing and what this person is trying to make people believe

Lying, cheating, and similar topics all fall into higher level deductions, because they require you to be able to trust your deductions over what other people tell you, they require you to find contradictions between what you see and what people want you to believe, and having the skills and track record to confidently believe what you see rather than what you're told.

No one's ever gonna tell you if they're cheating, but if they get home wearing a different perfume or deodorant than usual then that's a clue, or if they dress up as if going out for a date more often than usual, or if they show signs of having gone out to dinner while claiming they haven't eaten. All of these point towards lies, then it's your job to figure out what motivates those lies to figure out if it's cheating or not

At the end of the day it's all about being able to know when someone's lying to you by using what you can observe. as Dr. House once very eloquently said: "The eyes can deceive, the smile can lie, but the shoes will always tell the truth", people will lie to you, but your deductions (if well formed and made with the right skill level) won't

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 24 days

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All good points, also why being able to separate deduction and observation when needed, and being able to recall large amounts of observations comes in handy. You can always focus on observing when you have access to the subject, and deduce everything any time after without the pressure of needing to be quick. That being said, it's worth noting this is not a replacement for being able to quickly observe and deduce a subject, you should be able to use both methods

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Timing deductions

I had a conversation with one of my friends about timing deductions. I mean measuring the time it takes for you to conduct a deduction. This is a post for intermediate or intermediate-beginner deductionists, because I really don't recommend this to someone that has been doing this for a month or two, because in my opinion when you're starting deductions you should focus on accuracy over capacity. Quality over quantity as they say.

People that have been deducing people and started out deducing people (including me) shouldn't have a problem with timing deductionsbecause we only have such limited time before our subject either walks away or gets creeped out. I get most of my deductions when deducing a picture in around 5 minutes before I don't have anything else to deduce. I try dead ends for another 30 minute headache until I finish. And I usually get accurate results, because I'm used to having a time limit and my mind is trained so it can be fast and accurate. Most of the time.

In my conversation with said friend, We got onto the conclusion that it depends on how you do it. When you just time your deductions you miss a lot of info and potential. When you don't you just won't be good with deducing people.

In conclusion, the proper way to time deductions is to time it on the first attempt, and then take deduce with accuracy, taking your time. This way you will notice your mistakes, and won't miss anything that you could otherwise get.

Happy Deducing!

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 24 days

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Deduction Tips #16

The size of a bag is indicative of how much a person needs to carry, and usually we prefer to carry less things. When you see someone with a bag (be it a backpack, a purse, or anything else) think about why this person needs a bigger one rather than a smaller one, and what that says about the contents of the bag and the situation of the person carrying it

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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I've been asked repeatedly where people on the other side of the world have left items they've lost (like keys and such) cause i can accurately deduce where they are

Hi!!! How can deductions be used in day to day life, or like, usefully? And how have you made useful deductions? Sorry if that made little sense

Hi! I see you sent this question in the past two days, i'll gladly answer it, but in case you send any other questions in the future and i don't answer them as quickly i'll inform you that usually all the questions of the week are collected in my inbox and you'd get your answer on a Monday (this week i had some scheduling problems so i pushed it to Wednesday), so if you don't get as quick an answer next time just wait for Monday!

Now, regarding your question! There's many ways deduction can be used in daily life, sometimes it even depends on what you do for a living. For example i know psychologists and other healthcare profesionals have to rely on non verbal communication and information they gather from observation, along with what they're told, since patients can't be relied upon to be transparent and honest all the time, or even know what information is releant to share. In this case deduction can be massively useful.

On a more general note, it depends a lot on the type of relationships you have, i know people who use deduction to interact with their friends, it allows them to know when they're feeling upset or worried, and about what, and act accordingly, all without needing to do more than just glance at them. I know people who use deduction to navigate social situations because they're not good at interacting with people and having the extra information deduction provides helps. Personally i'm someone that introduces deduction into everything i do, from acquiring helpful knowledge when talking to superiors, to knowing what waiter is best to call over at my table cause they've gotten more hours of sleep.

I recommend you watch Sherlock, House M.D., The Mentalist, and all of these deduction heavy shows that sometimes showcase how these characters use their skills casually, it's really not much different than what you see there. If you want a blog that really goes into casual uses of dedduction i'd check out @froogboi 's blog, it's full of everyday life uses of deduction

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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My dude my guy hellooooo

Great blog, also, how do I stay observant? I have a tendency to just zone out and I have trouble focusing enough on anything to deduce, or even notice much, even if not just a specific person but just in general, like remembering to focus on the stuff around me, I tend to get lost in my head and forget. Any tips or exercises? Idk :/

Hello! so this is gonna be a pretty straightforward answer, mostly cause this is completly normal and a huge part of what you have to train when you start to deduce. There's a bunch of exercises for this, i recommend following the Amateur Deductions training program found here. The first few weeks are entirely focused on observation, i recommend you keep applying these exercises when needed even after you're done with that section of the training program, just to keep your skills sharp, i do them all the time

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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Hi!!! How can deductions be used in day to day life, or like, usefully? And how have you made useful deductions? Sorry if that made little sense

Hi! I see you sent this question in the past two days, i'll gladly answer it, but in case you send any other questions in the future and i don't answer them as quickly i'll inform you that usually all the questions of the week are collected in my inbox and you'd get your answer on a Monday (this week i had some scheduling problems so i pushed it to Wednesday), so if you don't get as quick an answer next time just wait for Monday!

Now, regarding your question! There's many ways deduction can be used in daily life, sometimes it even depends on what you do for a living. For example i know psychologists and other healthcare profesionals have to rely on non verbal communication and information they gather from observation, along with what they're told, since patients can't be relied upon to be transparent and honest all the time, or even know what information is releant to share. In this case deduction can be massively useful.

On a more general note, it depends a lot on the type of relationships you have, i know people who use deduction to interact with their friends, it allows them to know when they're feeling upset or worried, and about what, and act accordingly, all without needing to do more than just glance at them. I know people who use deduction to navigate social situations because they're not good at interacting with people and having the extra information deduction provides helps. Personally i'm someone that introduces deduction into everything i do, from acquiring helpful knowledge when talking to superiors, to knowing what waiter is best to call over at my table cause they've gotten more hours of sleep.

I recommend you watch Sherlock, House M.D., The Mentalist, and all of these deduction heavy shows that sometimes showcase how these characters use their skills casually, it's really not much different than what you see there. If you want a blog that really goes into casual uses of dedduction i'd check out @froogboi 's blog, it's full of everyday life uses of deduction

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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Hello. Quick question. What is your advice for someone who can observe fast and accurately but can't come to conclusions?(For example, I can see there is a mud or some kind of stain but I can't deduce how it is happened.)

Hello! I have good news and bad news for you, the good news is that if you trully find yourself in this predicament then congratulations! you're officially at the point that every deductionist has find themselves in, this means you're on the right track to actually learning to deduce. The bad news is that this is where the complexity of deduction starts to set in, and it's where a lot of people drop out of trying to learn.

So this plateau is the whole reason why is made this blog (and other blogs i've had in the past) to begin with. I found myself in this same position, where i could observe accurately and quickly, maybe come to some basic conclusions like someone's handedness, but i couldn't really get past that.

This is where you're going to have to start shifting your focus from observation to logic reasoning. You're gonna have to start following up your observations with the question "what does this mean?", and this is where most of my posts start to make sense and (hopefully) become useful, as you're going to have to start mixing some of these observations and extracting basic information from them that is gonna seem obvious but will be the first step to a cycle of "well if this is true then that must also be true, and if that is true and i saw this thing earlier then this other thing must also be true", and that's basically what a lot of deduction looks like.

Here are some useful posts i've made that will hopefully help you at this stage, since they're made for that, if you're still having trouble feel free to shoot me a DM and i can help you out personally!

"Obviously"

Knowledge vs Logic

How To Break Down Information

And here's an exercise that might push you to get past this plateau

Deduction Exercise 1: "At Least One Fact"

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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Deduction Tips #15

Don't let deductions based on small details cloud the big picture. A lot of times small behavioral details are contextualized by the environment, rather than serving as an explanation for the situation. For example seeing signs of anxiety like biting nails or bouncing of the leg (a deduction based on small details) in a person who's in a calm situation (big picture) may be indicative of the person's baseline when calm, rather than the person's anxiety levels. The big picture gives you the context for the small details, rather than the small details explaining what's hapenning

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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Update regarding questions

So usually questions sent to my blogs are answered on mondays, but due to some scheduling problems this week they'll be answered on Tuesday/Wednesday, so keep an eye out for those in the next two days

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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Waiting

This one's been sitting in my drafts for a while, it's a post aimed a bit more at people who actively use the information they gather while deducing and interact with the subjects they deduce. I've been trying to find the right way of conveying the information, but i'm having a bit of a ranting moment so let's give it a shot. Let's talk about strategy

Most of the time in media, or in online communities, when you see deduction being displayed you usually see a big chunk of text, or a big monologue of information about how much the deductionist knows about the subject being deduced. The problem is a lot of times this can lead to our brains separating the process into two big chunks, first you gather all the information and deduce from it, then you relay it or act on it (if you decide to do so). And sure, in a broad way of looking at it that's what you do, but we mustn't forget an important factor: Time

Time doesn't just stop while you deduce, things keep happening. And while you may feel like the amount of time that passes while you deduce is trivial, you gotta remember you're doing this in your head, and sometimes when you do things in your head it feels like they're processed immediately, but that's not the case

As you deduce you notice things in an order, and you observe things in an order, and you process things in an order. Even if it takes you seconds, those seconds matter, if you decided to stop paying attention one second earlier you wouldn't have noticed the next detail, which would change your deduction, sometimes in a significant way. So this is all very obvious, details appear and are noticed in an order, but what happens when we extend the time scale a bit, what happens when we talk about minutes rather than seconds? Say you stopped paying attention after 5 minutes cause you already got all the information, or say you're the type to show off, and you relay your deductions 2 minutes into talking to the person, what would you be missing? what could've happened in the next 5 minutes that would've made your deductions more accurate?

As deductionists we need to learn to optimize the time we spend deducing vs the time we spend acting on these deductions. We're constantly gathering information, and this information is gonna affect how we interact with people, regardless of how much or how little we do so, it will have some effect. If we act too quickly, if we decide we're done deducing prematurely and it's now time to act on it, or file it away, or relay it, we might miss massively important pieces of information.

So my advice to you is this: When you're deducing someone, don't feel compelled to stop, or move on to something new, before you have to. And be very aware that if you do, you will be missing information. This not always a bad thing, but make sure you know you're losing information and that you're making a choice to do so. Keep looking at that classmate you've been deducing until you have to shift your attention to something else. Sure maybe you ran out of things to deduce 2 minutes ago, but he might do or say something that sparks up the process again, and you'll only know if you learn to just wait

Make your observation active, because as much as we do train to notice things passively, to be in an "observing state" constantly, your active choice to sit down and observe will always pick out more, and will allow you to have control over when you choose to step in and interact with the information you've gathered, or to just move your attention to something new.

Make the active choice to wait for more information to come along, be strategic with your time with the subject, rather than just deciding you're done deducing and it's now time to say or do something with that

As always if you have any questions send them over and you'll have an answer on a monday

Happy Observing!

-DV

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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Deduction Tips #14

Pay attention at the time shown in watches. A watch that's ahead or behind can provide context and explanations for certain behavior in a person's life

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studies-in-the-art-of-deduction · 1 month

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Hi! Any thoughts on Luxury items?

-AJ

Many, yes! This is a pretty broad question so i'll keep the answer short and anyone can ask me to expand on it if they want

So basically it depends on where you draw the line when classifying luxury items, is a phone a luxury item? Are all phones? Is a flip phone a luxury item? How about the lastest iphone? How about a Rolex? or a Casio watch? All of these are important questions, but for the sake of argument let's broaden it as much as possible and say that anything can be a luxury item as long as some cheaper, easier to acquire version exists. For example a shirt can be a luxury item if it's a 100 dollar, plain, button up, because there are much cheaper, easier to acquire plain button ups that serve the same purpose

Now with that being established the first thing we know any luxury item tells us is economic status, that's obvious enough, but now we have to ask ourselves what does the item actually look like? Does it actually look expensive? a Rolex usually does, but there's watches that cost thousands of dollars that look nice, just not expensive. This now introduces the dimension of intent, does this person want others to know that this is a luxury item? and if not, then why did they spend that amount of money on it? i mean sure a nice watch that costs thousands of dollars might be better quality than one that costs 200, or 100, but is that difference in quality worth it? So luxury items give us a glimpse into the values of a person, what do they care about enough to go out of their way to spend a lot of money on? Looks? Quality? Environmentalism?

And then we have the question of how is this item treated? is it dirty? Scratched? Old? Broken? Remember that the "luxury" part of a luxury item doesn't always come from monetary value, a necklace that's not particularly expensive can still be a luxury item because the owner might percieve it as one, it might be an heirloom, or a gift

At the end of the day, luxury items deviate from other items because, by definition, they are items we choose to have, items we looked for, items we acquired by sorting through a lot of options. There's many decisions that led to the acquisition, display, and treatment of a luxury item. The item itself means nothing, but the choices and decisions attatched to it hold information about the person. Luxury items are, after all, identity claims, and when it comes to identity claims, intent is key

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