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Comment by fvdessen | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this article told more about the people reading and writing at The NewYorker than anything else. The lexical field is fascinating.

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What did you learn about them?

That not enjoying wine can be a profound experience that makes one search for meaning involving philosophers, politicians, multiple countries, mathematics, science, music, history, art, and social intrigue spanning dozens of people.

Haha, I came to the same conclusion. The article was a lot of words to say "I don't like wine, so I'm not going to drink it anymore."

It was about much more than that -- a child's relationship with parents, self-esteem, the American Dream, and social class, among other things.

As with many things (like academic papers) the meat is in the footnotes.

More broadly, feeling inadequate compared to your peer group, or desired peer group is a profound stimulus for some. I like your analysis!

https://xkcd.com/1095/

This isn't limited to wine drinking preference, people can pontificate about anything.

I'm sure a sea of articles in the same vein wouldn't begin to compare to the number of person-hours wasted on alcohols.

You might enjoy the New Yorker column, "Rabbit Holes". It's specifically for articles that take a small observation or part of culture and dive way deeper into it than you'd imagine possible (or practical).

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes

I was expecting a scientific solution to help wine taste better.

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