In the book “Alchemy,” Rory Sutherland notes that the most dependable way to depress the prices of a restaurant’s food is to put pictures of the dishes on the menu.

You might think that showing pictures of food to a hungry person is going to make them more willing to spend money, but apparently it’s the opposite.

Here’s what this has to do with your communications and presentations: Remember that the picture your audience members paint in their heads is going to be way better than any picture you could paint for them.

So when you are trying to decide whether to get specific or to be vague in describing the future that you will be taking your audience members into, err on the side of being vague. Your job in describing the future for them is to give them a taste, it’s not to describe every last detail.