If there’s a bowl of tortilla chips separating you and a delicious dinner, you have a choice to make.

Have some chips — maybe some salsa and guacamole — and when the meal is ready ... enjoy all of it.

Or, have a lot of chips — enough to fill you up — and then not have much of an appetite when the main course is served.

* * *

Consider how this relates to the way we consume media and culture.

When we fill ourselves with the banal, the mildly entertaining, the daily gossip, and things which are trivial ... there’s little room left for what’s truly nourishing.

When we prioritize consuming what’s frivolous, we have little emotional and intellectual bandwidth for that which can enrich us and propel us toward our best selves.

It’s not necessarily about completely removing things from our cultural diet (though it could be) but it is about portion control.