Documenting Media (or An Insight Into Why I Like to Make Lists)

July 4, 2018

Like most humans, I enjoy consuming various forms of media. However, compared to most humans, I keep better records and/or ratings for the things that I read, watch, or listen to. I find this documentation important, as I like being able to trace the genesis of things that I have learned or heard. In the worst case scenario, if I ever lose my memories or knowledge, keeping records like this will help retrace my steps, however unlikely or depressing that may be. A more realistic reason for this notekeeping is because it is not very difficult and it brings me happiness, which is a strong enough reason on its own. As a smarter friend once told me, only somewhat hyperbolically: "You seem to enjoy record keeping more than you enjoy ____" where the blank can be filled by most things I keep lists of (e.g. books, movies, podcasts, TV shows, climbing, etc.).

For books, movies, podcasts, and TV shows I include scouting grades, which allows me to rank these media forms into a "Best Of" list in the case anybody is interested in such a thing. All scouting grades are on the 20 to 80 scale, where the 20 grade baseline is sitting in silence without thinking (for example, I would rather blast white noise loud enough that I cannot think than watch a TV show about fashion; thus, this fashion TV show would receive a grade of 20). The overall grade is based on a weighted set of components. Each component of the grade is described as follows:

If you're wondering why I continue watching shows or listening to podcasts that have below average ratings, it is because I generally have a completionist mindset (even though this is a prime example of the Sunk Cost Fallacy), so if I've invested a lot of time into watching or listening to something, I often try and make sure I've watched or listened to all of it, which often includes listening to years worth of backlogs of podcasts (update: I'm finally comming around to the idea of how stupid this is, and have recently stopped doing this as thoroughly). Finally, if you're wondering how I make time for all of this media, it is largely because I watch TV and listen to podcasts at accelerated speeds.