Here Is Your Open Thread

In The New Republic, a case against office snacks (provided to employees for free as a perk):

In fact, employees may not even fully register that they are consuming office goodies — in part because they are so convenient. When it comes to snacking, we are especially bad not only at self-control, but also at knowing how bad we are at self-control. In one recent study, 40 adult secretaries were offered chocolate in various degrees of proximity. As the chart below shows, they ate more candies when the candies were visible and near, and only slightly fewer when they had to get up to get the candy but it was still visible. This tendency to eat more when the sweets are near seems obvious, but the tendency to eat more was fuelled by quantitative misperception: The secretaries also tended to underestimate their consumption when the candy was close and to overestimate how much they had consumed when it was farther away.

Also: The snacks at Tumblr, where Meaghan used to work, is “stocked with granola bars, chips, yogurt, fresh fruit and veggies, cold brew coffee, and a seltzer machine.”

I’d be totally cool with over-snacking on veggies and seltzer.

Photo: Nate Grigg

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