(Thanks, Tom Tiger for letting me use your photo!)
Funny thing about perception is it doesn’t really let us see what is actually there. I mean, sure, right now I am looking at a laptop made by HP. I like it well enough. I’d rather be staring at a Macbook Pro, but whatever. The way I look at this HP will be different than you look at it, or how your friend does. They might notice the keyboard first, or the remote control, etc.
That’s how it’s been working for a long time. Even way back when astronomy was really beginning to evolve. It starts with two guys. One was Aristotle and one was Galileo. For those not in the philosophical know. Aristotle was quite a bit older than Galileo. So much so that he was long dead. But Aristotle made all these conjectures about nature and soul and people believed him. He also said the moon was smooth! Then telescopes were made. And guess what? Even though people could see the moon, they still believed him.
Until Galileo. He changed everything. Galileo was a trained artist, so his perception was different. When he looked at the moon, having been taught about shadows and rendering, he saw the moon was not only not smooth, it was 3d.
Perception counts. When you’re designing your product or service or telling your story, aim for people’s perception. It’s what will make you boring or not boring, relevant or not relevant.