This definition violates assumption 3 merely enumerating a long list of things that are salads produces a lazy and cumbersome definition. The set of things that are salads is the set of things listed in assumption (2). Notably, by this definition, most foods (e.g., sandwiches) are still arguably “untossed” salads. a bowl of mixed nuts) which seems preposterous. This definition comes close, but it notably excludes an untossed salad, while still including things that are less salad-like than an untossed salad (e.g. Not notice a difference if the relative position and orientation of Well-MixedĪ salad must be a mixture of foods such that a typical person would

We rejected this definition because it violates assumption (1) by excluding fruit salads, chicken salads, pasta salads, and tuna salads. This definition is simple and restrictive, which is good. Fewer terms and conditions on the definition of a salad is more elegant (and by Occam’s razor, more likely to be correct).Ĭonsidered Definitions and Restrictions Traditional A good salad definition should be concise.A typical English-speaking person would consider the following foods “salads”: caesar salad, fruit salad, chicken salad, pasta salad, tuna salad, taco salad, and an untossed caesar salad.Any sane definition of a salad must at least include foods which a typical English-speaking person would colloquially refer to as a “salad”.Spurred by the release of food category theories which clearly misrepresent the nature of salads, the time has come to share ourįindings with the world. We were content to keep this dark knowledge to ourselves, but alas. We wrote up our conclusions in an internal document in May 2017. Begrudgingly, the office pedants were forced to reach an agreement: All edible foods are salads. People got sick of it and avoided some of us at lunch.īut the truth could not be avoided. We debated the merits of novel definitions. We attacked the problem from different angles.

Many heated lunchtime conversations ensued. Inescapably, a pizza was actually a salad. The answer to that question shocked and appalled us. Fatefully, one coworker raised the question of whether a salad could be called a pizza. The sandwich debates spun off numerous side discussions regarding the categorization of other foods. We talked a lot about sandwiches, then went beyond. Naturally, when the sandwich controversy took the world by storm around 2016, we were interested. In our office, we sometimes enjoy pedantic conversations where we attempt to properly define ambiguous terms.

Sub sandwich definition