Buzz Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers

with a new version of it, there’s that initial perk of excitement,

when you’re like, ‘Oh, interesting.’ Then you think about how it fits

into the rest of your collection. Every time something new comes

up I think, ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be fantastic to add to that collection.

Wouldn’t that be a great other thing to go in that little museum I’ve

got in my mind.’ That’s the experience that I feel when something

comes up. Then after that it’s immediately a sense of possessive

desire to do it. Every time I learn about something new, I want to go

out and try it.”

There’s another adventure that Victor loves. Food.

“I like trying all kinds of new stuff, despite the fact that

I actually happen to have a minor gastric disorder. It can make

me very sick, and certain things do. For example, my boss

happened to bring in this exotic fruit. I’d never seen it before,

never heard of it. I tried it, and it did make me extremely sick.

I actually ended up having to go home that day. Then two weeks

later, he brought in some other curio and it went in my mouth

just as fast as that. Then he said, ‘Shouldn’t you think a little bit

more carefully about that?’ I was like, ‘Nah, not really.’ Then

Itriedit.”

Some people call it food tourism.

Adventure Eating: Salivary Sensation-Seeking

Doing weird obstacle course races, scaling cliffs, jumping out of

planes in a squirrel suit and flying around – these are the kinds of

activities we typically associate with the high sensation-seeking

personality. But eating? Do high sensation-seekers actually eat

differently?

Some do. There are people who have a long-standing habit

of trying new food. These are the foodies, the gourmands, the

gastronauts. I’m not one of them. Think Anthony Bourdain. In

case you haven’t heard of him, Bourdain was a professional chef

who wrote several best-selling books and then became a television

sensation on shows likeNo ReservationsandParts Unknown.^30 The

premise of all of these programs? Bourdain traveled around the

world, encountering different cultures and investigating them, in

large part, through their food traditions. As you might imagine, this

led him to try someweirdstuff – from the ortolan, a teeny bird that

59 / The Everyday Life of a High Sensation-Seeker

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