On favorites

Posted: 2017-08-07 , Modified: 2017-08-07

Tags: likes, conversation

Parent: Likes

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People often ask each other, “What is your favorite _?"

A person’s favorite things can often tell you a lot about that person. When asked/answered in the wrong way it’s not very useful though. Here are some thoughts.

  1. Why do you like it? What does it mean to you personally?
  2. “I don’t have a single favorite…” is a common response. Our tastes aren’t encompassed by a single favorite. A better question is “what are your largest eigenvalues with respect to _?" (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_value_decomposition.) E.g. what are the top qualities of music, movies, etc. that make you like them, and are orthogonal to one another?