LOGICal eMOTIONs

Judging books by their cover?

// January 8th, 2007 // Brain Dump, Logical Emotions

Sure! Why not? I also judge wine by it’s cover – especially red wine! I believe there is a fine line in yet another statement that we toss around every day and attempt to ‘live by’.
What I have been discovering so far is that the phrase ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ is vaguely applicable to anything…

Ok, I’ll explain the wine thing, which by the way, really drives my wife nuts! When trying to pick out a white wine (for me) or a red wine (for her) the first thing I look at is the label itself. What catches my eye? What stands out? Is there a label on this wall of fermented liquid that someone has taken some sort of pride in? I firmly believe that excellent wine makers take pride in the ENTIRE package and not just the contents. If they believe their wine to be the best product on the market, why wouldn’t they put it in the best bottle with the best label? If they have put some sort of pride and effort into their label, might they have also put similar or more into the contents of the bottle? I think they would!

When it comes to red wine in particular, I have no way of knowing personally what might be good and what might not simply because I don’t drink it. Can’t stand the stuff. So, when I am presented with the challenge of buying a bottle for Colleen, I rely on my judgment of labels – which I should also note, has never let me down.. I wander the isles and scan the shelving for a label that jumps out and has had some effort put into it. Once I find one I pick it up, spin it around to check for a couple other items in the description on the back which will be agreeable to Colleen’s palette, and if all checks out, I buy it. It is really that simple.

I believe that the same applies to restaurants, blogs, businesses, people, and yes, even BOOKS! I’m a big fan of books and if you’re not going to the store (doesn’t work as well on Amazon, sorry) to buy a specific book then how do you decide which one to check out first when presented with hundreds?

Sure, we don’t LIKE to judge things by their cover, but hey, we do it all the time! Do you go into the clean looking restaurant or the dirty looking one? We look for people and establishments that take pride in themselves and what they do. We also avoid those that do not. We make judgments every day and all day long.

“Yeah, but you’re not supposed to judge people by what they look like”

Absolutely and I’ll stop when you do. Hey, we’re not perfect and nobody expects to sell the Ferrari to the guy who looks like he doesn’t even own a cardboard box either – but it happens! My point is that it happens every day and that there are times where we can use it to our advantage. And I will agree that there is a distinction that needs to be made in that the final decision on which bottle of wine does not rest ENTIRELY on just the label.

Now, this is also all opinion (mine) regarding what looks appealing to me and what does not, and there is likely some heavy marketing going on also. We make a judgment based on an emotion in milliseconds – what we choose to do then is ENTIRELY up to ourselves.

Are you going to miss out on some great wines? Sure. The way I look at it is that if I try ones with bad labels I’m likely going to get some poor choices which will lower my success rate, whereas this way I’m batting a thousand. Like I said, it drives Colleen nuts right up until she tastes it.

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