Version 1 of #4629

The part about putting the liquor in the top cabinet reminds me a bit of my relationship with salt.

One part of me has been trying to eat less salt, for health reasons. But another part of me likes the taste of salt; it makes many dishes taste better.

I’ve noticed that placing the salt shaker on my dinner table makes it harder to resist putting salt on my food. So I put the salt shaker in my kitchen cabinet. That simple act makes me want salt less because I don’t want to get up to grab it.

The problem is, this isn’t a solution. It’s a self-coercive patch. The part of me that doesn’t want salt gets to run roughshod over the part that does. That’s not a common preference; it’s arbitrary.

I’ve tried coming up with some solutions, like replacing salt with potassium-chloride, but it doesn’t taste good, so then I don’t eat it as much. I just go back to salt instead.

Though I’m an advocate of rationality, I always like to remind people not to see me as a representative of it. This is an example of why. My relationship with salt is clearly irrational. If I had mastered rationality, I would have already found a solution.