Matt: ...although I doubt most people really mislead themselves about liking specific songs or ideas, maybe our large-scale conceptualizations of our tastes tend to be based less on individual likes and dislikes and more on trying to produce a coherent statement of self. I'd be more willing to say that most people really mislead themselves about liking specific songs or ideas. There are, taking myself as an example, several songs - guilty pleasures, perhaps - that I like much more than my image of myself suggests that I should. And others that I try to make myself like more than I do. Maybe I'm unusual that way, but it's reassuring to know that at least I'm not the only one. Then there's the music that you play for yourself versus the music that you put on for others. And the task of making a mix, which I was totally unable to do well for most of high school because I was paralyzed by the idea of it as a comprehensive self-defining statement. And there are mixes you make for yourself, and mixes you make for others...which at least in my experience, are not exactly the same. And apparently, with the advent of iTunes (with which I claim no personal experience given my lack of functioning computer for the past semester), every iTun-ers in, for example, my dorm can peruse and listen to every other one's music. And I've been privy to several surprised/ bemused/ impressed/ critical discussions of other people's lists...Oh the tangled webs we weave...