This is a guest post by my partner, Dave
The bizarre practice of swallowing live goldfish apparently launched in 1939 at Harvard, that esteemed institution of higher learning where calculus just isn’t challenging enough.
Lothrop Withington Jr. (his real name) swallowed a live goldfish to win a bet and promote his candidacy for class president, because nothing says “strong leadership” like inhaling a fish. Students at other Ivy League universities heard about it and thought it sounded like fun.
Soon, no goldfish was safe.
At first it was a male-dominated pastime because, well, men. But then Marie Hansen, a journalism student, bravely gulped her first goldfish and spread the word in the name of equal opportunity. Societies were spawned—first the Intercollegiate Goldfish Gulping Association (IGGA) to enforce competition standards, and then the Society for the Prevention of Goldfish Eating to uphold the rights of innocent goldfish.
The fad eventually subsided after university administrators decided it was not conducive to academic development, which is administrator-speak for “the donors called, and their koi are nervous.”
Here’s the thing: Humans will do ridiculous things for status and attention. Today it’s clicks and cryptocurrency, yesterday it was carp. Before you jump at the next shiny trend, take time to feed the goldfish and ask yourself how your future self will wish you had invested your time.