Every time we pay for something we experience what is called ”The Pain of Paying”. When we pay any amount of money we feel some psychological pain. This is associated with giving up our hard earned cash. But it also turns out that this pain does not increase linearly with the cost. This means that when we double the payment, the pain doesn’t double – it only increases by a bit. In fact, the biggest increase in the pain of paying comes when we switch from paying nothing to paying something. Which means if you dine out with your friends, to reduce the pain of paying as much as possible, you shouln’t split the bill, instead take turns each time you go out. ”The Pain of Paying” is a mysterious behavior that economists long tried to solve.

”It might take that long for Siri to inflict that much harm to Google and Google has lots of cash to throw at the problem. But we might be watching the beginning of the end of Google, thanks to innocuous introduction of Siri in the 4S.” – Eric Jackson, Forbes

It’s been a couple of weeks since Apple’s new voice controlled virtual personal assistant Siri made its debut. Siri on iPhone 4S lets you ask questions and give it commands. For example, ask Siri about the weather and it will respond out loud with a short summary of the day’s weather and a snapshot of the five-day forecast.