Discovering Where Your Interests Lie

"Your interest in television is true. Your interest in reality television is true. Your interest in true-crime television is true. However, your interest in gritty prestige crime dramas that expose the socioeconomic complexities and ethical ambiguities within the justice system? That's where your interest lies. Still, your interest in your fellow-humans is true. Your interest in their experiences, troubles, and innermost dreams is true. Your interest in alleviating their suffering wherever it arises is true."

"Your interest in food is true. Your interest in getting the recipe from a friend who cooked you an incredible meal is true. But your interest in separating eggs, stirring continuously, sifting or spooning or levelling flour-in short, your interest in baking-is a lie, although your interest in baked goods remains very much true. To be perfectly honest, your interest in food, now that your mother-in-law has given you a five-hundred-page book on the history of saffron, has become a lie."

"Your interest in going to a museum when you visit a new city is true, as long as you spend less than an hour there (including the gift shop). Your interest in becoming a sustaining member of a museum in your own city is true, because your interest in attending that museum's member night where they serve free hors d'œuvres is true. But passing all of this off as an interest in fine art is a lie."

Many declared interests distinguish between the enjoyment of outcomes and the willingness to do the work those interests require. Examples contrast genuine enthusiasm for television genres with selective engagement in prestige crime shows, empathy for others with unwillingness to hear real answers, and a love of food with refusal to bake. Museum attendance is confined to short visits or free perks rather than sustained engagement with art. Fishing appeals as contemplative staring rather than catching. Seeming well read often trumps actual reading. Repeatedly, preference for appearance, convenience, or comfort undermines claims of sincere interest.

Read at The New Yorker