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Top five, and the geek.
Apr. 26th, 2007 05:21 pmFey and I have discussed this a few times. The fact that once you get to be a big enough geek in something, your "favorite" of that thing becomes nearly impossible to determine.
Sounds counterintuitive? Hear me out.
Say you're talking with someone with a bit of interested in a subject, lets use cars. If you ask them what their top five cars are, they could probably give you an answer with little difficulty. But once you get to be a big geek on the subject, you know too much, the question becomes unanswerably complicated.
Top five cars, simple enough right? Well do you mean top five cars ever made? Top five cars I'd actually want to own? Based on aesthetics? Performance? Current cars? Classic? Stock? Modified? Customized? Do factors like reliability enter into it? Does it have to be cars I know from personal experience, or can I include ones I've only heard or read about? Heck there's just the problem that I know of more kinds of cars than most people
...you get the picture. Think on it too long and you risk you head exploding.
And it can work with nearly anything. My housemate f'instance is a comic book geek. To the point where she can't just list off her top five favorite superheros. She gets bogged down in questions of era, author, genre, etc.
Why am I rambling on about this? Mostly because I find it a fascinating concept, and thought I'd share it with you. But also because I'm trying to put together my "Top five cars I'd own if I had all the money in the world, but had to drive these for the rest of my life". So if you never hear from me again, it's because my head exploded.
Sounds counterintuitive? Hear me out.
Say you're talking with someone with a bit of interested in a subject, lets use cars. If you ask them what their top five cars are, they could probably give you an answer with little difficulty. But once you get to be a big geek on the subject, you know too much, the question becomes unanswerably complicated.
Top five cars, simple enough right? Well do you mean top five cars ever made? Top five cars I'd actually want to own? Based on aesthetics? Performance? Current cars? Classic? Stock? Modified? Customized? Do factors like reliability enter into it? Does it have to be cars I know from personal experience, or can I include ones I've only heard or read about? Heck there's just the problem that I know of more kinds of cars than most people
...you get the picture. Think on it too long and you risk you head exploding.
And it can work with nearly anything. My housemate f'instance is a comic book geek. To the point where she can't just list off her top five favorite superheros. She gets bogged down in questions of era, author, genre, etc.
Why am I rambling on about this? Mostly because I find it a fascinating concept, and thought I'd share it with you. But also because I'm trying to put together my "Top five cars I'd own if I had all the money in the world, but had to drive these for the rest of my life". So if you never hear from me again, it's because my head exploded.
