As social media platforms and journalistic and other content providers vie for “time well spent” in users’ valuations, my one-track mind turns once more to the panacean analog of perfume.

On the one hand, life’s too short to spend wearing any perfume you don’t like. I’d rather spend the same day basking in an irrational boost of confidence from a smell that makes me smile than carrying a cloud of self-consciousness everywhere I go because someone’s interpretation of a delicate note of luxury ends up interpreted on me as a powdery wet wipe.

On the other hand, time spent smelling something good is time well spent. I am stating the obvious here. What was not so obvious to me before it was explicitly articulated, in the context of giving away the lead in teaser copy, is that time well spent does not have to be long. It can be a few seconds well spent. That’s still better than no time spent on your content in any form.

Perfume rarely has any trouble achieving that. The top notes are the lead. In contrast to journalism, what you get if you stay for the whole story may be quite different with a perfume, by virtue of the heart notes and base notes and some of their aroma characteristics being tied to their volatility.

If you’re lucky, you find a perfume (or two, or ten, or twenty) that gives you a whole day well spent.