it makes me feel so fine i can't control my brain

the banana is a communal fruit. the number of bananas one might feasibly purchase is very much dependent on how many people one intends to share these bananas with. bananas produce ethylene in abundance, a gas that's considered a plant hormone. what ethylene does is that it causes fruit to ripen. bananas, being aggressive producers of ethylene, ripen very quickly compared with other fruit, and has a short shelf-life.

hence, it is quite impractical to purchase a large bunch of bananas for individual consumption. unless one's appetite for bananas is exceptionally voracious, it's impractical for someone living alone to purchase a bunch of 10. even if one manages to consume all of them, there is still the problem of preference. everyone has a preferred level of ripeness, and unfortunately, the ethylene ensures that bananas won't stay at the level after hitting it.

but say you intend to share. if those you are intending to share with have difference preferences for banana ripeness, a much larger bunch becomes feasible. if we assume people take this into consideration in their banana purchasing patterns, one might learn a lot about someone's social situation from the number of bananas they take to the supermarket check out line. a small bunch of 4? probably living alone or selfish. 6 to 8? a single roommate, or a significant other. 10 or more? family with two kids. that scale probably needs some tweaking, but with sufficient controls, i think we might be on to something here.