I don't adhere to "I'll try anything once". Or rather, there's a massive amount of things which I've never done but have enough experience with things I think are similar or have similar attributes that I have no interest in trying them.
But, for things you are willing to try once, I recommend you consider increasing it to twice. Not because you could have had a bad version of that experience and it should have a second chance (though this can be true), but because even if you had the good version, you may not have properly experienced it at all.
The first experience is unique. Your brain has to process entirely new experiences and whatever emotions you feel about that. That's what makes the first time you do something special, and you should treasure that. But in rare cases, it completely taints the experience.
There's multiple foods I eat regularly which triggered my gag reflex the first time. The second time onwards, eating exactly the same food prepared exactly the same way, was fine. It's not an acquired taste I had to build up a tolerance to slowly over time. I literally was not tasting the same thing the first time because my brain didn't know how to process it.
So if you have a bad time with something totally novel, it might be worth a second, smaller try. Just to see if you disliked the experience or only the novelty of the first experience. I suspect physical sensations which tap directly into your senses are the strongest version of this, but if you're prone to strong emotions it could affect just about anything.
Be cautious and give yourself an escape hatch. Trying something you've already disliked will obviously have a drastically higher failure rate.
But, trying a new food costs almost nothing in the long run. If you dislike it at worst you stop after one bite and forget about it in a day. At best, you might find something you enjoy for a lifetime.
- Rew
Nightly Notes
Coming to terms with the opposite of this, that I can't do something I enjoyed for the first time again and feel the same way I did then, has been a very slow process. It's so hard to learn to enjoy the second time on it's own merits, knowing it'll never reach the same peaks.
But, that's what life is made out of.
I always thought I was a relatively unadventurous person, creature of habit and all that.
Then I went and named my blog Perpetual Rewiring.
Not the traditional form of novelty-seeking behavior perhaps, but I've been looking for a particular kind of unusual experience for a long time. Part of me has spent all my life looking for ways to jump in the deep end of the pool.
I wish I had known that sooner. It would have saved me so much confusion.
- Rew