New Experiences
If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.
Gelett Burgess
One of the nice things in life is making new experiences — even if you hate it, you have learned something new … and often useful. This is one reason why I am trying to work on a task manager that really deserves this name, because one of the main functions is a good note taking system that allows you to quickly make notes.
The relation to new experiences? Just take a simple example.
Suppose you visit your usual cafe, bar, restaurant — whatever. Chances are, you have already narrowed down your selection of drinks to drink and food to eat. You know what you like, which is fine. You know the maximum you can get out of your drinks or food at this place. But it could also be that it is just some kind of local maximum. You know what you like in the usual range of drinks or food you order. But what if there is a completely different thing that you have never tasted before, but that you will also never encounter because you always order your usual drink or food? Now imagine that you could simply take a snapshot of the menu, tag it with the place, and cross out all the drinks and food you have already tasted. Wouldn’t that make it easier for you to order something new the next time you are at this place? Perhaps to make it possible to encounter something you have never tasted before, but that you might like immensely?
Flyer from the local pizza delivery service. Crossing out the things I have already ordered reminds me to chose something different next time and makes it easier to select something I haven’t chosen before.
Personally, I have started to take photos of menus and editing them with a simple image editing software on my iPhone and to keep one version of the pizza service flyer at home. What I do is to cross out all the drinks and food stuff I have ordered so far. Whenever I order something, I always order something I have never ordered so far — just for the purpose to make a new experience and perhaps find something that I like — but didn’t expect to like.
It’s easy in life to fall into … convenience traps. Things you know that work for you. Yet you miss out the opportunity to find something that might work even better for you. Don’t let your past experience limit your horizon — make yourself try something new.
