From personal experience, I disagree with this. Many times I have thought “I could do that, but it wouldn’t be fun”, then done it, and found it to be fun.
This sounds like a separate phenomenon, where you fail to predict your preferences when you have little direct experience. But this is different than if you have tried, e.g. studying mathematics a large number of times, and find that you consistently don’t enjoy it.
Of course, people often confuse the two situations: They think that mental simulation of an activity, or trying an activity once or twice, is enough to really claim that they don’t enjoy it. For example: the person-who-doesn’t-like-dancing but has only tried dancing once or twice in some high-stress public situation.
I agree, it’s a separate phenomenon, but I think it’s the more common one. For example, I doubt Scott ever seriously tried to become interested in sports. I did not understand how I could possibly enjoy sports, at all, ever. Then I read up on American football and watched a few games to broaden my horizons. And do you know what? It was surprisingly fun. I’m still not a sports fan, but I understand how I could become one if I needed to.
Finding something unexpectedly fun seems different from finding something unfun and then later finding it fun. (Which in turn is different from finding something unfun and subsequently causing yourself to find it fun.)
From personal experience, I disagree with this. Many times I have thought “I could do that, but it wouldn’t be fun”, then done it, and found it to be fun.
This sounds like a separate phenomenon, where you fail to predict your preferences when you have little direct experience. But this is different than if you have tried, e.g. studying mathematics a large number of times, and find that you consistently don’t enjoy it.
Of course, people often confuse the two situations: They think that mental simulation of an activity, or trying an activity once or twice, is enough to really claim that they don’t enjoy it. For example: the person-who-doesn’t-like-dancing but has only tried dancing once or twice in some high-stress public situation.
I agree, it’s a separate phenomenon, but I think it’s the more common one. For example, I doubt Scott ever seriously tried to become interested in sports. I did not understand how I could possibly enjoy sports, at all, ever. Then I read up on American football and watched a few games to broaden my horizons. And do you know what? It was surprisingly fun. I’m still not a sports fan, but I understand how I could become one if I needed to.
Finding something unexpectedly fun seems different from finding something unfun and then later finding it fun. (Which in turn is different from finding something unfun and subsequently causing yourself to find it fun.)