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Taste in an Age of Endless Choice

By: Tom Vanderbilt

Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer

Why do we get so embarrassed when a colleague wears the same shirt? Why do we eat the same thing for breakfast every day, but seek out novelty at lunch and dinner? How has streaming changed the way Netflix makes recommendations? Why do people think the music of their youth is the best? How can you spot a fake review on Yelp?

Our preferences and opinions are constantly being shaped by countless forces – especially in the digital age with its nonstop procession of “thumbs up” and “likes” and “stars.” Tom Vanderbilt, bestselling author of Traffic, explains why we like the things we like, why we hate the things we hate, and what all this tell us about ourselves.

With a voracious curiosity, Vanderbilt stalks the elusive beast of taste, probing research in psychology, marketing, and neuroscience to answer myriad complex and fascinating questions. If you’ve ever wondered how Netflix recommends movies or why books often see a sudden decline in Amazon ratings after they win a major prize, Tom Vanderbilt has answers to these questions and many more that you’ve probably never thought to ask.

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I love good journalism. I picked this book up after reading an excerpt in Wired magazine, expecting to enjoy it thoroughly. While I did find it interesting, I felt that it choked on the one thing reputable journalists are almost universally good at: making ironclad logical connections between facts (studies, interviews, etc.) and conclusions.

Although plenty of excellent research went into this book, Vanderbilt spent a lot of time out in the weeds, drawing conclusions and making judgments that didn't seem warranted by the data. In the end, the book asked more questions than it answered, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but shouldn't be the case for a book with such an extensive bibliography. I also found that I couldn't detect the rationale for leaving some questions alone and unanswered, and answering others with speculation or theory stated as fact.

To Vanderbilt's credit, psychology is a hard subject to reach any conclusions about, and he tries hard to keep it anchored in reality despite the temptation to go the "pop psychology" route and talk about what is interesting rather than significant.

Interesting, a good intro on the topic

I found a lot of the information to be a repackaging of things I had already read about, but I studied some of this stuff in university.

What was new to me was some of the more journalistic parts of the book, like when he interviewed the people at echonest.

It's a good read, I enjoyed it overall.

Interesting topic but oh so boring!

The science of taste is fascinating and the author does a great job describing its complexities. However, the organization of the book and the “so what?” are clearly lacking and turned this story into a snooze fest!