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The Last Piece Of Chocolate Cake Scenario

12 November 2010 by Tim 9 Comments

There it is, on the table, it is a chocolate cake, a good chocolate cake.

There is only one piece left. You want it.

I reckon there are four types of people.

Selfish

You want that last piece. The challenge is to persuade everyone else to let you have it. If the room is empty for a moment, you eat it, you have plausible deniability … you can pretend that it wasn’t you, and blame someone else. Otherwise, you have to be more subtle…. a wistful “does anybody else want..” or a confident “Well if nobody else wants…” both often work.

Self-Centred

You see the last piece, it looks good. No-one else is picking it up, so you take it. It never occurs to you that someone else might have wanted it. Why didn’t they say before?

Self-Absorbed

It is your piece. You are entitled. Nobody knows how important that last piece of cake is to you. No-one understands what you have been through nor how much you need that last piece of cake. If anyone else wants your cake, they are clearly a bad person, greedy, unscrupulous and selfish (see above). After all it is your cake.

Four types? If you don’t fit one of the above? … Darwin is not on your side.

Filed Under: General

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lins says

    12 November 2010 at 21:56

    Phew! I don’t like that sort of chocolate cake. I must be OK then.
    .-= Lins´s last blog ..inventions =-.

    Reply
  2. Michelle says

    13 November 2010 at 12:25

    Lins – the scenario states that you do want the cake.
    Self-centred here. Would hate to see a good piece of cake go to waste.

    Reply
  3. Michelle says

    13 November 2010 at 12:27

    Actually no, if a smallish gathering I would ask the table/room if anyone wants the last piece of cake. If someone says yes I would suggest it was halved.
    Am I allowed to change my answer?

    Reply
  4. Tim says

    13 November 2010 at 14:20

    Too late. You already scarfed it down. No point feeling guilty now, move on. Find more cake.

    Reply
  5. Helen says

    13 November 2010 at 23:10

    You’ve only listed 3 – is the forth dieting, or allergic to chocolate or have they scoffed the rest of the cake??

    Reply
  6. Tim says

    14 November 2010 at 16:00

    Like I said, if you ain’t on the list, Darwin is against you … whatever your excuse.

    Reply
  7. Tbird says

    15 November 2010 at 15:13

    me and Darwin never saw eye to eye anyway… Me? I’d have already eaten enough cake by that point cos, having been in the kitchen baking it in the first place, I’d have done an extra one for me 😀

    Reply
  8. Tim says

    15 November 2010 at 19:05

    Tbird, that is so rightthinking.
    You make a cake for everyone else to share.
    They think that you are a warm, wonderful and generous person.
    Little do they know, you have already eaten two cakes, all they are getting is your left overs. 🙂

    Reply
  9. Ailbhe says

    16 November 2010 at 00:47

    You’ve left out the socially-conscious selfish, long- and short-term selfishness, that is, “Who would like to share this last piece of cake with me?”
    .-= Ailbhe´s last blog ..Actual- Like- Home-Edding =-.

    Reply

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