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You May Also Like
You May Also Like: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice | Tom Vanderbilt
11 posts | 9 read | 7 to read
From the best-selling author of Traffic, an enlightening and illuminating look at why we like the things we like, why we hate the things we hate, and what our preferences reveal about us Why is showing up to work wearing the same outfit as a coworker so embarrassing? Why do we venerate so many artists who were controversial or ignored during their lifetimes? What makes an ideal cat an ideal cat, or an ideal beer an ideal beer, in the eyes of expert judges? From the tangled underpinnings of our food taste to our unsettling insecurity before unfamiliar works of art to the complex dynamics of our playlists and the pop charts, our preferences and opinions are constantly being shaped by countless forces. And in the digital age, a nonstop procession of thumbs up and likes and stars is helping dictate our choices. Taste has moved onlinethere are more ways than ever for us, and companies, to see what and how we are consuming. If youve ever wondered how Netflix recommends movies, how to spot a fake Yelp review, or why books often see a sudden decline in Amazon ratings after they win a major prize, Tom Vanderbilt has answers to these questions and many more that youve probably never thought to ask. With a voracious curiosity, Vanderbilt stalks the elusive beast of taste, probing research in psychology, marketing, and neuroscience to answer myriad complex and fascinating questions. Comprehensively researched and singularly insightful, You May Also Like is a joyous intellectual journey that helps us better understand how we perceive, judge, and appreciate the world around us. From the Hardcover edition.
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LibraryCin
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Mehso-so

Not too much to say about this. I found it (mostly) interesting and easy to read. Oddly, although I‘m not really one for art appreciation, I remember that chapter a bit more than some of the others (also the online review chapter, but that may not be a surprise considering I am writing a review to post online…!).

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AileenRR
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Mehso-so

There were some interesting bits (struggling to come up with an example) but I was mostly bored

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jsburbidge

"...people liked the same piece of music more when it was described as being by Bach versus a fictitious composer named Buxtehude" [Dieterich Buxtehude was entirely real, and admired by Bach]

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DocBrown
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Pickpick

Didn't change my life, but still an interesting exploration of why we like what we like, and why that's different across people and through time. Based on a social science research, like his earlier book on traffic -- in fact tastes share many characteristics with physical traffic. I recommend that book too; I learned a lot.

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DocBrown
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On how the past was never better than the present: 'Let me let you in on a little secret. If you're hearing about something old it's almost certainly good. Why? Because nobody wants to talk about shitty old stuff. But lots of people talk about shitty new stuff, because they're still trying to figure out if it's shitty or not. The past wasn't better, we just forgot about the shitty shit.' Q.E.D.

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DocBrown

That moment when the book you're reading name-checks a grad school buddy: priceless. That moment when you learn that the author was on Jeopardy, but performed worse than you: PRICELESS.

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DocBrown
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'Who does google think you are? There's an easy way to find out. Type in www.google.com/ads/preferences.' I did this just now, and it was interesting to see the things that Google says I like. I'm wondering whether my interests are corrupted by when my kids use my computer.

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DocBrown
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'Go to a diner, diners have menus that are seven pages. But you order the same thing. You don't want choice -- you want the illusion of choice.'

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katedensen
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Ep 6 of #MyWeekInTinder now live!

iTunes: https://itun.es/i67d9TG
Stitcher: http://bit.ly/2kXHT0E
PodOmatic: http://bit.ly/2kXfsjx

Brevity is the soul of wit, so this episode isn't even 20 min long. There's a new app coming to town and I CAN'T WAIT. What happens when I actually respond to someone who just messages "hi"? Nothing good. Also, an unsolicited critique of my OKCupid profile and my response to it.

Thank you to the Littens who listen!

LeahBergen I listened to the first episode! 👏🏻👏🏻 8y
katedensen @LeahBergen Thank you!!!! ❤ The rest are all much, much shorter. 8y
23 likes2 comments
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katedensen
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So, one of the things I found today was a bulletin board, which I mounted above my new desk location and filled with images that inspire me or just make me happy. How many do you recognize?

Dragon I can guess a few Marilyn Monroe, Oscar Wilde, Audrey Hepburn, William Shakespeare and maybe Gloria Steinem? 8y
Hobbinol Is that Oscar? Doesn't Audrey have her own Oscar? 8y
katedensen @Dragon Four out of five! It's actually Joan Didion ☺️ @Hobbinol Hahah. Well. This one's better. 8y
28 likes1 stack add3 comments
review
Hooked_on_books
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Pickpick

A very interesting read about taste and why we make the choices we make. It's a bit dense in places and I found it best to read in bursts between other books. Which I'm sure says something about the way I make choices. 🤗

22 likes2 stack adds