We went out to lunch yesterday at a local buffet for a family birthday.
This is dangerous. A good buffet tempts the senses with an abundance of culinary delights. It’s nigh on impossible to eat a reasonable amount of food.
I know this. I consciously understand this. I have living memories of gorging on buffets and paying for it the rest of the day.
You think that made any difference? Guffaw.
The beef brisket and ribs and eggplant parmigiana went down fine. By the time I hit the beef curry, I started to notice the fullness. The butter chicken and rice, with a cheese naan bread, sent me to the edge.
But I wasn’t about to throw in the towel. I’m getting nauseous and sweaty by this point but I will not be stopped with New York cheesecake on the table.
This reckless and stupid gluttony made the rest of the day uncomfortable. Naturally. I didn’t feel right for almost six hours.
This experience made me realize a few things.
I might eat like this once every 2-3 years. There are people out there who make this a regular experience.
I’m as stupid as anyone when it comes to learning my damn lessons.
The occasional stupid choice can be fun and rewarding. Making reasonable decisions isn’t the only purpose for living.
Damn I love cheesecake and ribs.
More is most assuredly not better.
The oddest thing about life’s weird situations is that you notice how many of them overlap. This brief story about over-eating is, for example, as much a truism about your “information diet”.
It’s tempting to stay plugged in to as many sources as possible, as often as possible, to soak up as much information as possible.
There are terminally online people who truly believe that they are “better informed” because they soak up so much news.
Not so. Like my GI tract stuffed full of delicious foods, a mind over-filled with a fire-hose of facts, updates, and breaking news is unable to process it all.
Staying informed soon turns into cognitive overwhelm.
If you want to avoid the negative side-effects of a buffet-style feed, the best thing to do is get strategic and aim for the greatest leverage.
A little bit at the highest quality easily wins out over “the most”.
Then again, it’s fun to gorge yourself now and then, if for no other reason than to remember why you don’t do it often.
Matt Perryman
https://matts.email