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“Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?” – Pinky
The Brain.
The rather oddly shaped hunk of meat that allows us to breathe and come up with stories about lab mice wanting to take over the world.
One of the brain’s interesting features is its attraction to novelty. On the one hand that means when you’re bored you’ll consciously look for something to feed the novelty monster. On the other, it means we’re easily distracted by most shiny objects.
Where am I going with this?
The one thing I can tell you about New York, and this is true for a small number of cities, is that it is in a constant state of flux. The rate of change is rather high here and while that means no one is ever sure what is going to happen next, there is no shortage of novelty.
Not sure what to eat? There are a few dozen places within walking distance of wherever you are that are bound to have something you haven’t tried before (of course, if you live anywhere long enough, you know all the places and that leads you to increase the distance of your hunt to find some place you’ve never been to, or have rarely been).
The above stated behavior (and it is a lot more complicated than I let on but you knew that) also means that we crave newness. When there aren’t a lot of choices we make due (well, some of us), but when the choices are numerous and virtually endless (I’m looking at you, Amazon) it means we select novelty at will.
Watch your choices. They define you. Just look at Pinky and the Brain.
Of course, you could always pick up a new story…we have a few to choose from.
And they are all novel.
Stay well!
A.B. Alvarez
