Sky Render said:
It's called "cognitive dissonance". Being able to recognize the quality of an item even if you personally do not like that item is an important skill in critical thinking. The only true measure of "quality" that exists is quantity, which of course is not a measure of "quality" at all by any usual standard. However, quantity can tell you something about an item's functional quality, that is to say, how useful it is in given contexts. For example, Pokemon games sell very well indeed. I don't especially enjoy them (the first one was interesting, I'll give you that, but I lost interest afterwards). But I recognize that the fact that they do sell so well is an indicator of their quality, specifically their marketable nature that makes them very popular. You don't have to like something to see that it has value. You do have to be able to see past your own bias, however, to see value in that which you personally do not value. |
I want to reject this out of hand based on principles outlined in my post at the top of the page, but only because you're equating sales with objective quality. The idea of recognizing values in something is fine, though it only amounts to acknolwedging an agreed-upon set of subjective criteria.