How you do one thing is how you do everything.

There’s this legend going around in the rockosphere, how the famous 80s band Van Halen used to request a brandy glass full of M&Ms with all the brown ones picked out in their dressing room.

This story has become an example of turning things up to 11, diva-like requests, excess, and spinal-tappness.

However, in reality, it was just brilliance.

The request was there to see whether the promoter had fully read their contract.

If there were no brown M&Ms, the band could trust the promoter, and they could relax.

If they hadn’t bothered with that detail, the band knew that all the lighting and sound specifications had to be reviewed.

The brown M&Ms were an early warning system.

I know some people do the same thing on Upwork.

The first message must be “blueberry”.

And if it isn’t, they aren’t even gonna open the message.

Heuristics… They rock.