I watched an awesomely mindblowing sci-fi movie today, and was extremely tempted to just start on a movie marathon. I used to be a fan of marathons. I would marathon everything – from movies to tv series to even my jampacked social schedule etc etc.

But I now resist the temptation to do so, simply because it is less worth it to do so for three pretentious sounding reasons:

1. Law of diminishing marginal returns: Too much of a good thing is a bad thing. The additional amount of utility/satisfaction I gain from whatever I’m marathoning decreases. It may even reach negative marginal utility – like stuffing yourself with 600g of ramen/tsukemen.

2. Hedonistic adaptation: Closely related to LDMR. Strictly speaking, hedonistic adaptation refers to more long term life changes I think. Basically when there are good/bad changes, human beings adapt to it (with the exceptions of noise and breast implants). Spread out your good things, and cram all your unpleasant suffering together.

3. Regression toward the mean: AKA reverrsion to mediocrity. Having started with an awesome first one, the probability of the next movie I pick will probably be more average and hence relatively underwhelming.

On the flip side, what is one reason to marathon?

Pringles: Now in individual packets.