The thing nobody else collects gives personal taste a place to remain unvoted upon.

Interests that nobody else shares are free of other people’s rankings. When there is no market, no league table and no crowd agreeing about which examples are best, your own judgement is the only one operating, and liking something for private reasons stays possible. Popularity brings company and brings a scoreboard with it. The obscure corner keeps the pleasure and loses the scoreboard.

Protect one interest of yours from comparison this week by simply not looking up what anyone else thinks of it. Notice whether your enjoyment of it is different when nobody has ranked it for you.