Did you happen to catch the Billboard Music Awards a few days ago? Me neither. These types of award shows only exist so that every schlub who ever appeared on programs like American Idol and The Voice can win something. Good for them. The youth of today needs the positive reinforcement that comes along with a “participation” trophy.
Everything’s overrated. That’s not just my opinion, and I’m not just having a hypercritical day. I mean, scientifically, literally, I think everything’s overrated. We rate a lot of things in everyday life, things like books and movies and restaurants and stupid blog posts and, anyway, I think there’s a rating bias. I think people, in very large numbers, say they like things more than they really do. It’s counter-intuitive really because most humans love being haters. We love to criticize and point out flaws and kick the wounded YouTube video while it’s down. So what gives? Well, it’s something I call crowd or associated bias.
As I approach my 500th book review on Goodreads it strikes me how rare a “five-star” book really is. Goodreads.com is a nice place to find a new book and I especially like it because it allows me to create a digital archive, an online library of all the books I’ve read. This site lets you rate books on a scale of one-to-five stars. If a book only rates one or two stars then it’s crap and, well, it means you’re shitty at picking out books. I’ve never rated a book as “one star,” but, alas, I’ve stumbled and had to endure a couple of “two stars.” It turns out that most of the books I read, in the final evaluation, rate three or four stars. A “three-star” book, in my estimation, is a solid read but just not as compelling as I’d hope; a “four-star” book is a damn fine book just short of greatness.