Knowing the common enables the distinctive departures that read as original

Evidence

Originality is much easier with granular knowledge and expertise, because knowing what is distinctive requires knowing what is common. Those looking to improve their taste can always learn more about the full range of choices, each choice’s meaning, and their former and current status value. This provides individuals with the confidence to go beyond the well-known and into exciting new directions, perhaps even unearthing unforeseen pleasures in commonplace items. The famed food critic Anthony Bourdain arguably reached the foodie pantheon not by celebrating haute cuisine but by championing overlooked delicacies such as the Japanese convenience store egg-salad sandwich. Successful artists forge unique sensibilities by combining preexisting artifacts and conventions in new ways. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 258

Categorization

• CANDY: Bourdain’s canonization via the convenience-store egg-salad sandwich is a fun, tweetable fact.
• XREF: connects to: Original thought can also inherit a prior heritage; Identical text can differ in originality depending on authorial context. — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 2029; People display originality within group conventions to signal difference safely — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 178 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• People display originality within group conventions to signal difference safely #exemplifies (0.82) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 178
• Original thought can also inherit a prior heritage #complicates (0.78)
• Identical text can differ in originality depending on authorial context. #qualifies (0.76) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 2029
• A transformative aesthetic Event requires uncanny familiarity, not just novelty #qualifies (0.75) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1099