An old chestnut that "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" is often phrased as “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” In essence they mean the same thing. Anyone who has ever had to work in sales understands this. Even products for the most unpleasant things have to be sugarcoated. Of course, anyone who has to break unwelcome news to someone knows it too. This is the essence of the old optics debate that no one involved seemed to learn.
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