Liking something nobody else likes is one of the fastest ways to find out who you are.

Most preferences are partly inherited from whoever is nearby. When you like something with no social return attached, no group to join and nobody to impress, the liking has to be coming from you. That is rare information, and it accumulates: a handful of those and you start to see the shape of your own taste rather than your friends’ taste.

Follow one unexplainable interest this week without telling anyone it is good. The obscure album, the odd sport, the subject nobody in your year cares about. Notice what specifically you enjoy in it, and keep that detail.