It’s hard to land music, books, etc. recommendations from friends because timing is everything. The best case is a recommendation for a thing I didn’t know of and it’s precisely what I need to read or watch at the exact moment. Beyond that, it’s likely I’m reading some 900-page book (humble-brag) or deep into a peak television series (humble-brag) that I’m trying to finish before my attention wanders.
I’ve come up with a couple of ways to more immediately act on recommendations, so they aren’t for naught:
- Download a Kindle/iBooks sample right away and read the first several pages of whatever they recommended. If I’m into it maybe I’ll stick with it. At least, it’s on my backlog of books until I forgot why it’s there and delete it (i.e., 2-3 times a decade).
- Watch the first several minutes of the thing on Netflix or whatever. See if it’s any good instead of watching random YouTube videos recommended by the algorithm.
For everything else, there’s always the long, scary list of things I’d read/watch/play/listen to if we stopped doing billionaires and gave everyone a living wage. 🤷♂️
