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…
Take something you don’t like and try to like it
121–130 of 236 posts
Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it
#122Earlier 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.
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
#123Many 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.
Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it
#124You 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.
Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it
#125Or like the Russians say, "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."
Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it
#126Earlier 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.
Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it
#127Many 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.
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
#128Or 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…
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
#129[1] https://www.amazon.com/Embrace-Suck-Navy-SEAL-Extraordinary/...
Re: Take something you don’t like and try to like it
#130"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.