A Neuroscientist Always Picks The 2nd Dish On A Specials Menu

Moran Cerf is a neuroscientist at the Northwestern University who always picks the specials menu at a restaurant and orders the second dish on it. He has a perfectly good reason for it too. He has been researching on decision making and since he knows how mentally draining it can be, he has chosen this pattern for himself whenever he wants to eat out.

“Sometimes it’s a big failure, but sometimes it’s also a big failure when I choose myself,” he says to Business Insider. The concept the neuroscientist follows is also followed by Mark Zuckerberg as you may have noticed that Facebook CEO  wears grey t-shirts all the time. These people do not want a “decision fatigue” so that they can focus their energies on important decision rather than food ordering.

Cerf also has cut down on many small decisions made during the day and in fact trusts the restaurant’s judgement rather than his own on what’s tasty. “I know the chance of making a mistake by giving someone else the choice is equal,” Cerf told Business Insider. “I might as well give someone else the choice for me.” Why the specials menu and not the main one? Well, it’s shorter.

Even though Cerf has this pattern, he does pick the restaurant he would like to go to or else he’ll make plans with a friend who has a good tastes in restaurants and ask him to pick. This way he sticks to making bigger decisions in life and reduce the chances of not being satisfied.