Thinking I'm Special

One of the sections of Predictably Irrational was about a set of experiments they conducted in restaurants to see how people ordered. What they found is that people will often not order what they are really craving once someone else at the table has already ordered that dish because they don't want to be the same. It's more important to to seem unique and not a follower than to eat what we really enjoy. I know I certainly do this.

I also find myself avoiding books and popular culture after they get to a certain level of hype and popularity. I don't want to just read the same thing everyone else is raving about; I want to be more distinctive and refined in my tastes than that. As an added incentive to avoid these types of books, once they're in demand enough I lose my professional reason to read them since they no longer need me to recommend them. However, when I finally do get around to them, usually well after the fact, more often than not I find the hype is well-deserved and I've been cheating myself of a great reading experience.

(It's quite possible this will end up as the lead-in to my review of one of two audiobooks I just checked out, but we'll have to see if I actually get to them and find them deserving.)