Researchers found people will pay more for furniture they assembled themselves than for the identical pre-built version. Same product. The only difference: their own sweat went into it.
Effort doesn't just produce a thing — it transfers value into the thing. Your labor becomes love. We don't value what we have; we value what we've poured ourselves into.
This explains a lot. Why you defend a messy plan you made over a cleaner one someone handed you. Why teams protect projects they built badly. Why a hard-won relationship feels more precious than an easy one.
The trap: effort can blind you. Sometimes the thing you built isn't better — you're just attached to the building.