[anonymouse008]

You nailed it. The difference between cultures in rural, suburban, and urban is mainly due to environmental stimulus. When your only opportunity for food at ~9pm in a rural/suburban environment is fast food — that changes the way you view your day, becoming a defacto framework that permeates everything.

They think in terms of independence and consequence (sound red?) - work late and still want decent sleep? Well you have to eat McDonalds or make a turkey sandwhich, there is no luxury, no option of a small family restaurant sharing their homeland cuisine.

This makes for a peculiar set of people - people that are mad good at creativity within limitations, but are constantly defined by their lack of exposure to experiences and post-modern cultural poverty.

[ghaff]

>When your only opportunity for food at ~9pm in a rural/suburban environment is fast food — that changes the way you view your day, becoming a defacto framework that permeates everything.

I pretty strongly disagree with this. Most people make meals at home which aren't necessarily "just a turkey sandwich." I don't even live in a particularly rural area (about 40 miles west of Boston) and I don't really have great meal options at 5pm much less 9pm. There are a few good pizza places, a Five Guys, some chain steak places, etc. but other than the odd pizza takeout I don't really eat out.

If I lived in a city? I'd probably go out or get takeout more regularly but I'd still cook most days.

[anonymouse008]

I debated fully fleshing out this topic and decided to stick to a high level until someone replied - so thank you for the critique.

The turkey sandwhich was meant to be a place holder for the general idea. Roughly, if you want to work long and hard to get ahead, usually food prep time is the easiest thing to cut to get a return on time invested in long term value. There are still super humans that have mastered meal prep (this may be you) but for the people I know, it’s hard to do all of these things well with limited options - which forces this consequence mindset.

[ghaff]

Nothing particularly super about me. I haven't regularly commuted for a long time and almost certainly never will again. But even when I went into an office regularly, I mostly left at 5-6pm. Never felt it was useful to put in more hours than that. (Travel, well, not these days, but you know what I mean is a different matter.)

That said, when I was commuting, I did have a lot of meals I could throw together quickly (or had made ahead)--probably faster than going out for takeout to be honest.