More shameless

In this week's Under 30, I share my "Why Everything That's Popular is Almost Always Bad Theory." It will blow your brains out your butt and back into your butt after it richochets off the floor!

(I'm also posting the placenta pic again by popular demand!)

Here is my theory in a nutshell:

A person is capable of caring about only three or four things. For example, I consider myself an expert when it comes to music, movies and television. I also know a fair amount about sports. So I spend about 91 percent of my free time learning about these things, analyzing them and consuming them.

That leaves about 9 percent for everything else, including fashion, home decoration, gardening, cooking, hunting, mechanics and any number of hobbies, pastimes and areas of interest I know nothing about.

When faced with anything not related to music, movies, TV or sports, I go with what’s popular because it’s easy and I don’t know any better. Ease is the No. 1 attribute of popular things, followed by (2) superficial appeal and (3) familiarity, which really are just outgrowths of easiness.

Since good stuff isn’t always easy, superficial or familiar, people tend to value “not not good” over “good” when it comes to stuff outside their 9 percent.

Will this food taste like what I already like? Do I understand what these lyrics mean? Can I buy underwear at the same store in Toledo, Ohio, that I shop at back home? Will this movie about a woman pretending to love Matthew McConaughey kill time as effectively as the other movies I’ve seen about women pretending to love Matthew McConaughey?