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Take something you don’t like and try to like it

dynomight.net

121–130 of 236 posts

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#121
post #30

Many things need to be understood to be appreciated. For instance music: we tend to like what we know, and what we know is what we hear on the radio/everywhere we go. When people tell me they don't like jazz, I always find a jazz song they like. If they say they don't like rap music, I can always find one they like. Why? Maybe because it's closer to what they already understand (making it more accessible), or maybe i…

I've been trying to acquire a taste for Free Jazz a few times over the years and haven't been very successful.

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#122
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this with sports to fit in better and make it easier to socialize. I do this with music, films, and books because I think some things are objectively better than others in ways that don't always line up with my own tastes.

So you're lying to yourself to fit in instead of exploring the wider world to find undiscovered potential interests that bring you joy. I used to be like that. The earlier you stop, the more content you'll be. If you're worried that you might have bad taste, you're only thinking about how you're perceived by others, not about using your short time on Earth wisely.

That's a very uncharitable interpretation of what I wrote. No, I'm not lying to myself, and what I'm doing is almost the opposite of worrying what other people think.

I'm trying to let good art affect my soul and keep bad art from corrupting it.

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#123
post #30

Many things need to be understood to be appreciated. For instance music: we tend to like what we know, and what we know is what we hear on the radio/everywhere we go. When people tell me they don't like jazz, I always find a jazz song they like. If they say they don't like rap music, I can always find one they like. Why? Maybe because it's closer to what they already understand (making it more accessible), or maybe i…

Adding to this: Some classical music sucks! It took me longer than it should have to start getting into classical music, because when I heard a piece that sucked I just assumed I didn't understand it and that classical music was too complicated. No, it's just that a lot of classical music sucks and is annoying to listen to. But a lot of it is fantastic.

Yeah I've been figuring that out myself recently. Turns out that I don't really like Baroque or Classical music, but I do like Romantic music. It was just a factor of finding that "classical" has more than one genre in it

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#124
post #3

You can do this with flavors or pain sensations by focusing on the feeling. You can also meditate on it then learn to mentally subtract it entirely, realizing that the experience is just an experience mediated in your system. Learn about how the mind flips and reverses and fills in vision from retina.

Try that with an abscessed molar. Some experiences are truly extreme.

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#125
“While you can’t always control your situation, you have tremendous power over how you experience that situation. You may find a cramped flight to be a torture. But the torture happens inside your head. Some people like your situation. You too, perhaps could like it.”

Or like the Russians say, "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#126
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I managed to acquire a taste for gin and tonic - I went as an adult from thinking it was the most revolting thing ever to one of the few drinks I occasionally find myself craving. Acquiring the taste clearly involved drinking the stuff but I have no idea how...

A lot of tonic water brands have been adding more sugar, which might also explain changing preferences.

I still bitterly remember the one and only time I ordered a plain tonic water, thinking it would be seltzer. I understand now why they say the British cut the tonic with gin, and not the other way around.

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#127
post #64
post #30

Many things need to be understood to be appreciated. For instance music: we tend to like what we know, and what we know is what we hear on the radio/everywhere we go. When people tell me they don't like jazz, I always find a jazz song they like. If they say they don't like rap music, I can always find one they like. Why? Maybe because it's closer to what they already understand (making it more accessible), or maybe i…

I would have said no on Rap before Hamilton. I would like to know your goto for Jazz.

No rap before Hamilton is under exposure to NYC boom bap. Lin-Manuel Miranda is quite good but I am sure he wouldn't put himself on the level of Big Pun or Nas.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue is the best selling jazz album of all time but it is still a specific sub genre of cool jazz that might put you to sleep.

Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters I think is the second best seller. I really don't know if I have ever read someone say Head Hunters sucks. It probably isn't what you expect in the same the way Hamilton sounded different to you.

I would go with those two and if you don't like either I wouldn't bother looking for more.

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#128
post #2

Or don't, and cultivate taste, which is about having a rationale for separating the good from the bad -- and disliking stuff. It might not make you popular at parties though.

I think that's orthogonal. The author is not saying that everything in every field is good: their TV example explicitly calls out bad TV. What they are saying is that you can make yourself enjoy a field _at all_, in which you can then apply taste. For example I don't like whisky, but that's not a matter of me applying "good taste": I would never claim that whisky is bad in general and if I really tried I'm pretty sur…

Taste isn't static over time either.

My favorite thing is to rediscover something I thought in the past was terrible only to now find I love it.

Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it

#130
post #93

"Taste" is such a funny concept: - A few weeks ago I looked up some music from my youth: Korn, Deftones, System of a Down, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Slayer, Testament, Iced Earth. I played much of this to death back in the day. And ... I found I don't really care for much for most of it now. I also no longer care much for the "Trash metal classics" I liked at the time such as Testament, Slayer, and Iced Earth.…

There is the famous idea in the UK that you either love or hate Marmite. Marmite used to use the concept in it's own advertising. I, on the other hand can take it or leave it. I sometimes wonder what that says about me.

It means you should try Vegemite. Many people will violently identify as a Vegemite hater and a Marmite lover, or vice versa.
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