Whilst designing a graphic for a consultant at my job:
Me: Okay, you want me to highlight the important items on this roadmap, right?
Consultant: Correct.
Me: Which ones are the important items?
Consultant: The ones in blue.
Me: All of them are in blue.
Consultant: Yeah, they're all important.
Me: You want me to highlight all of them?
Consultant: I guess so.
Me: That means none of them will be highlighted.
Consultant: The blue ones need to be highlighted.
Me: I understand that, but if you highlight everything, everything ceases to be highlighted. Like if I asked you to highlight the important part of a book, and you highlighted the whole thing. People aren't going to think that the whole thing is important. They'll just think the highlight is the regular font.
Consultant: Oh...okay, well, that one isn't as important. You can not highlight that one.
Me: Congrats to that item, then. That'll make it the most important item on the page.
Consultant: What?
Me: It's the only one that draws the eye. You look right at that one, because it's the only one that's different. It's the girl in the red dress in a sea of black suited men. It's the David Bowie of the page.
Consultant: You really think people won't get it?
Me: Dude, I don't get it, and I've got you explaining it to me. This entire conversation has arisen because it's hard to get. You have to pick, like, 20-30% of these to highlight for highlighting to be a thing.
Consultant: Oh man...some people are going to be mad at me.
Me: Are any of them your boss?
Consultant: No.
Me: You ought to be fine, then.