Now, this is a question that bothers me on several levels. Many of you know from my videos that I have trouble picking favorites, and I have recently come to the conclusion as to why. Favorites are a sign of ignorance. I know this sounds harsh, so please allow me to explain.
People often ask me what my favorite song or composer is. This riles me up in several ways. First of all, there is an implication that they are actually looking for me to pass a judgement, based on my experience, of what is quality and what is not quality. I can understand this from one perspective, being that as somewhat of an expert I can offer some insight that they did not know about; I cannot understand, however, how they actually expect me to choose. When someone is as knowledgeable as I (and I am by no means the definitive scholar) in a field, they know a wide variety of examples of their art form in many different styles and can appreciate various aspects of them. It would be very easy for me, for example, to pick a favorite symphony if I only knew, say, Beethoven 9 and Schubert 1; Beethoven CLEARLY beats Schubert (in my opinion). When, however, I know dozens of symphonies by equally numerous composers, there are many more variables between which I cannot choose.
That is why I say favorites are a sign of ignorance. You can easily pick a preference between a handful of options, but when the options grow more numerous, it becomes more and more difficult to make a choice. I used to be able to pick a favorite food. I used to be able to give a favorite color. I used to be able to pick a favorite car. I no longer can because I know so many of each.
What also strikes me about picking a favorite is that it almost always prevents further research. If you have an old standby, why try something new? Humans are creatures of habit, and it is easy to fall into a rut doing the same things over and over again. It's comfortable, it's easy, and you only get more efficient at it. But I personally believe the old adage that variety is the spice of life.
That is why, from now on, if I find myself picking favorites, I will force myself to research more until I can no longer pick one. If I get a favorite tool, I will try others to see advantages and disadvantages. If I become complacent with my entertainment, whatever it may be, I will try and find something new. If I, heaven forbid, have a favorite child, I will do everything in my power to connect with and learn about the others so that I appreciate them equally.
So this is my plea to you, dearest reader: DO NOT allow yourself to pick favorites. Not having a favorite will make life much more fun.
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I very much agree. If I had to pick just one artist as a favourite I couldn't and it's been over 8 years since I had a single favourite band or song. With blogging and youtube to pick only one as a favourite would be both difficult and counter productive. It's the variety of people, of topics and of styles that make it a worthy venture!
ReplyDeleteI hope that does not hold true for your significant other. :D All joking aside, there are a lot of instances where you have to pick favorites. Also you do, every day. Just picking out clothes in the morning would be impossible if you had no preferences at all. But those can change and those are personal. I think what you want to avoid, is to make choices for others and thereby limiting their experiences of the matter at hand.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying completely, but there are various occasions where it's acceptable (at least for me, being an obsessive person) to have a very strong temporary favourite musician or film or something. When I got the Star Trek DVD, I watched it 7 times in two weeks, because it was easily my favourite film at the time, but I did indeed, as you say, realise that it would not always be my favourite, as there are many more films to see.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my favourite Guitar of mine is easily my Taylor, which means that it is currently my favourite Guitar in the world, despite the fact that there are millions of Guitars I have yet to play. It is my favourite because I have made the informed decision that out of Guitars I have thus far played, I think it is the best. So basically my argument is that favourites are ok, as long as you're able to be flexible with your favourites :)
I've always had a hard time picking favorites. I've never been able to view something as vastly superior (in my opinion) to all of my other choices. When someone asks what my favorite anything is, I typically give a list of things I thoroughly enjoy because nothing deserves to solely be in the number one spot.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the only thing I feel safe calling my favorite is the color yellow. I'm an art student, so I work with color all of the time. Every color is beautiful in it's own way. There are SO many colors I enjoy, but yellow is the one I truly enjoy the most.
I don't like picking favorites either. I have always hated that question and still struggle to answer.
ReplyDeleteI usually don't like to pick favorites, primarily because my opinions of bands or movies or books are constantly changing. I can see your argument and I support it.
ReplyDelete