Scott Adams draws the cartoon "Dilbert" and is the author of "How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big". He promised in his blog to give his readers the best orgasms of their lives. This promise was part of his discussion of what he sees in the Donald Trump campaign as manipulations of people's thinking. I am not especially interested in any of that but I am interested in the abstract problem of anything being the best and the individual differences and insights between people in their choosing the best or something close to it.
Of course, Adams chose "orgasms" as a subject for its supposedly attention-getting value. I asked a person I know about interest and enthusiasm for better orgasms and immediately got evaluative questions, "How much better?", "Better in what way?" and the like. That is the thing with variables: the top reading on a variable often comes from an item that is not the top reading on other variables that are also important. The best looking prince may be cruel while the wealthiest one is miserly and the sweetest one is unhealthy and unlikely to live much longer. She wants handsome, wealthy and healthy and several other qualities, too.
I have spent many interesting hours with educated people discussing books. Those discussions often involved trying to say what book was best. As with many aspects of education, family life, marriage and personal living, such discussions of favorite books, movies, music, foods and clothes emphasize the individuality of favorites. Not only do opinions and reactions differ between people, they differ within a single person. When a 40 year old looks at a book they remember as thrilling at 15, they are sometimes surprised at how much they do not find the same outstanding quality in it.
We like to think that high readings on good scales will lead to happiness but when we switch our thinking to costs, the choice array can be surprisingly different. The prince who tops out on some of the variables she has been thinking about lives in a different culture and to learn a new language and a new religion while living in a new country would be expensive in many ways. Another top candidate doesn't want children and still another looks like he would not be a good parent. She estimates the cost for her and her children of parenting with that guy to be too high.
You can see why it is handy to be reasonably tolerant and accepting in life. You can see the value of knowing the self as intimately and fully as possible since the self is the agent doing the evaluations and the self is the person who is pleased or displeased with the results.
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