Weber-Fechner Law

You're seeing it when a $2 price increase on a $10 product triggers outrage, but the same $2 increase on a $200 product goes unnoticed. The absolute change is identical; the perceived change is 10x different.

You're seeing it when early feature improvements delight users but later improvements of equal engineering effort barely register. The baseline has risen; the same absolute gain is a smaller relative gain.

You're seeing it when a $5,000 raise for a $50,000 employee transforms morale, but the same raise for a $250,000 employee is forgotten in a week. Relative magnitude drives perception.

Frame all changes in relative terms. A 10% improvement on a weak baseline is transformative; the same 10% on a strong baseline is noise. Front-load product polish where baselines are low. Structure pricing and compensation changes around the logarithmic perception curve.

Meyer built his hospitality empire on the insight that small gestures at low baselines create outsized perceived value. A handwritten note, a remembered name, a complimentary appetizer — these are tiny in absolute cost but enormous in relative perception because the baseline expectation at most restaurants is indifference. Meyer understood Weber-Fechner intuitively: the first increment of care is the most perceptible. His "enlightened hospitality" philosophy prioritises the early moments of the dining experience, where the baseline is lowest and perception is sharpest. For founders, Meyer's approach is a design principle: invest disproportionately in first impressions, onboarding moments, and low-baseline touchpoints where small absolute improvements create the largest perceived gains. As the baseline rises, the same effort yields diminishing perceptual returns — so concentrate resources where perception is steepest.