It occurred to me today that I’d rather just order from the menu and know what I’m getting, thank you very much.
When I was a kid, we would go to Ponderosa. It was AWESOME. I think my favorite part, in all honesty, was the ice cream machine that we were able to get ice cream out of, at the end of our meal, if we finished all of our food. It had vanilla soft serve on the left, chocolate soft serve on the right, and swirl in the middle. Then, we would pile the ice cream high with toppings of all kinds.
I don’t remember caring that much about the buffet.
Of course, everyone knows what a buffet is. If you’ve ever been to a Ponderosa, or a Golden Corral, or an Old Country Buffet, then you know what I’m talking about. Huge countertops that stretch for great distances, each countertop full of option after option for your dining pleasure.
I think that, if you’re like most people, there are probably a significant number of options at the buffet that you wouldn’t normally choose. In fact, I would tend to think that most people usually just go to a buffet to get the same things that they would normally get, which is pretty interesting when you think of all of the options that a buffet offers and how much we love our options.
I remember, as a kid, the gooey mac & cheese at the Ponderosa. I’m sure that there wasn’t ever a time that I passed that up.
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The problem with a buffet/smorgasbord is that there might be other things that you don’t want to have there. Of course, you –being just one person– don’t fully represent what people are interested in eating as a whole group, so the things that are in the smorgasbord that you would never put on your plate could end up selling more than those favorites of yours that you always pick, if there are more people choosing those options than your options.
For the restauranteur, they have to make the decisions about the things to put on the buffet. If they leave out a container of candied beets and no one touches it all day long, it’s a pretty good indication that, as customers have come and gone, no one is interested in candied beets.
And, as much fun as it has been, thus far, to discuss the business aspects of the smorgasbord, I’m really more interested in pursuing the metaphor of the thing.
We live in a world that seems to push at us a plethora of options. I’ve often witnessed how this can make decision-making nearly impossible, and I’ve often wondered whether or not having fewer options, while not necessarily an attractive idea, would certainly make decision-making, and the stress associated with the difficulty of making decisions, less of a thing. The paralysis that comes when we have so many options that we come incapable of choosing is curious to me, as well.
Have you ever thought about this: it is most certainly the truth that, when we choose one thing, we are also –simultaneously– choosing to not choose a bunch of other options. When I ask for a dark cherry ice cream cone at the ice cream shop, I am also asking for a NOT rocky road ice cream cone, and countless other flavors that I am NOT choosing. With multiple options, we are more capable of choosing something that we will be happy about, right? Imagine the ice cream shop with two ice cream flavors –> one you hate and one you only slightly dislike? What would you do?
I can hear you saying, “I’d go somewhere else.”
What if this hypothetical ice cream was the last one on the planet? Would you choose the lesser of the two evil ice creams?
Or, think about it this way, using the above example.
What if my favorite thing to have in an ice cream cone is chunks of marshmallow? And, coincidentally, what if I also happen to love chocolate ice cream? Seems like it would be rocky road ice cream for me for the rest of my days, right?!?!
What if I hate ice cream with nuts in it? Do they make a rocky road ice cream without nuts in it? Doesn’t sound very ‘rocky’ to me?!?!
What if, despite my hatred of nuts in ice cream, I buy rocky road ice cream because it has the chocolate that I love and the marshmallow that I love, and I just tolerate the nuts?
This last question is an interesting one, because I think it highlights some of what is going wrong in our world of limitless options.
Have you ever made a decision to buy something, or involve yourself in something, that wasn’t entirely what you had in mind, just because you knew that you were going to be getting a lot of what you wanted, and you would just put up with the parts that you didn’t like?
Usually, we would call this ‘compromise’.
Ever go on a date with someone because they could get you into the concert of the century, but you didn’t really want to be on a date with that person?
Ever order a specialty pizza at a pizza place because it had pretty much everything you wanted on a pizza, but it also had the XXXXX topping that you were willing to put up with?
Ever vote for a politician because you agreed with them on several topics, although you also disagreed with them on this one particular topic?
Ever attend a church service because you loved to listen to the pianist play during the worship service, but you couldn’t stand to listen to the pastor speaking?
In these situational examples, we end up feeling slighted by a world that will, most of the time, offer us more options than we can shake a stick at, but in these particular circumstances, we get screwed into having to compromise to get what we want.
One of the other interesting things that is going on, in at least a couple of these examples, is that you could end up sending the wrong message.
Imagine that dating partner, who got you into that awesome concert. Now, they might believe that you are interested in them, when of course you are not.
Or the politician who ends up believing that they are more palatable than they really are, only because they were the option that was less awful?
I guess, in the end, our love of plenty of options makes situations, in which we don’t have as many options, feel disappointing.
Additionally, so many options make us less likely to understand the art of compromise. If I don’t have to compromise when it comes to the burger that I order at the fast food joint –“I don’t want pickle or lettuce, just ketchup and mustard, please.”– would I ever be okay with the concept of compromise in other parts of my life?
It Occurred To Me Today 