On my snowboard trip last week in France, there were three bars/restaurants together in a row.

Two were busy with long queues.

One was slow but steady.

If you wanted to find out which was the better place to eat, our bias would be to look at the queues.

We may not like to admit it, but we are sheep.

‘Results from a study at the University of Leeds show that it takes a minority of just five per cent to influence a crowd’s direction – and that the other 95 per cent follow without realising it.’

A better question to ask than which one was the busiest was this:

Which one did the locals go to?

The people who knew the score.

The busy ones had all the tourists.

The quieter one had all locals.

Hmmm.

The quiet one turned out to be the gem.

I ate there every lunchtime.

When we ask better questions, we get better results.