- Some types of sophistication won’t make you enjoy the object more, they’ll make you enjoy it less. For example, wine snobs don’t enjoy wine twice as much as you, they’re more keenly aware of how most wine isn’t good enough. Avoid sophistication that diminishes your enjoyment.
Teaching someone the depth to something like cars or pens or literature is a gift and a curse. On one hand, you’re showing them a new, deeper world that they might really enjoy and find fulfillment in. On the other, they might realize something like “a true classic Porsche 911” is out of reach or that the pen they like is kinda middle-ground or that their favorite sci-fi author is kinda schlocky.
Maybe the gift is “this is amazing, but it’s a bit of a forbidden-knowledge hazard to know you could have this thing.”
The classic knowledge hazard for me, is One car to do it all. If that video hadn’t re-awoken my excitement for Porsches I would have a much more boring car, a lot more time back in my life, and mid-five figures of money spent otherwise. But maybe I’d have missed out on a fun hobby. 🤷🏻♂️
Riffing on this idea:
“If you want to upset a person for a day, tell them their car sucks. If you want to upset them for life, show them how to appreciate the automotive experience in a way that they will plumb the depths of for the rest of their days.”
“If you want to upset a person for a day, tell them their taste in music sucks. If you want to upset them for life, show them the first step in the journey to seek out and appreciate the depths of really great music despite the knowledge that the most popular music is an entertainment business and will never reach the levels which you aspire to.”
Enjoy things, seek out the finer details of what makes them nice. Not too much. Mostly things that don’t cost more than your monthly mortgage/rent.
