Only dead fish go with the flow - Andy Hunt

I need to say, the quote in the title seems to be very similar to the G K Chesterman one, so not sure entirely about the attributed author, blame the misinformation on the internet if I've got it wrong. The photos have nothing to do with the words, but just from a recent early morning walk...look at the pictures, read the words or do both, you're choice.

We were going to dinner before the theatre and only had an hour, so we just ordered a main. The food, however, came so quickly and the walk to the theatre was much less than the 15 minutes we'd initially thought, so we had plenty of time and decided to order dessert.

The desserts were minimal and three of us ordered the gelato just for the sake of it, rather than with much enthusiasm. Our fourth, however, said "I'm getting a starter". To the waitress he said, "I'll have the anchovies". She was a little confused so he pointed to it on the menu. "Oh, you're having an entree?" she questioned. "Yes" he affirmed confidently.

Now, I realised I should have done the same, as there were many more things in the entree menu that appealed to me than the desserts.

Why do we blindly follow these rules? There's no need, there's no harm to anyone if we buck the system in this case.  Yet we don't. We follow an unspoken path of behaviour. Even if we don't really want the dessert, most of it order it if still hungry. Just because that's what's meant to come next.

I am a person who will order two entrees instead of a main if I don't like the main, and one time, at a restaurant that had amazing entrees but very pedestrian mains, we said "We'll just order all the entrees, and not have any mains". The waiter said "Fine, which ones do you want?" To which we replied, a la Ron Swanson (but before he said it), "All of them. Just bring them out a few at a time". The waiter found this hilarious but enthusastically complied.

So why was I surprised when my friend ordered anchovies for dessert? I guess I've become more conforming and conservative in age without realising it. It's not so much I needed permission to do it, more it just never occured to me - I was bound by some arbitary rule about what to do in restauarants. Illogically unquestioning...What else do I do this with?

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