How to Discover Your Own Taste

Being on the internet just doesn’t feel as fun anymore. As more of our digital life is driven by algorithms, it’s become a lot easier to find movies or TV shows or music that fits our preferences pretty well. But it feels harder to find things that are strange and surprising — the kinds of culture that help you, as an individual, develop your own sense of taste. This can be a fuzzy thing to talk about. But Kyle Chayka, a staff writer at The New Yorker, has written a whole book on it, the forthcoming “ Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture .” We talk about how today’s internet encourages everything to look more the same and is even dulling our ability to know what we like. And we discuss what we can do to strengthen our sense of personal taste in order to live a richer, more beautiful life. Mentioned: “ Quartets: Two: II. Warmth ” by Peter Gregson Ambient 1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno Book Recommendations: “ In Praise of Shadows ” by Junichiro Tanizaki (essay) Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can fi…