You DJ With My Music

Music can be a weird thing. Everybody has different tastes. They love different songs and artists, and they irrationally hate different songs and artists. Some genres will speak to them, across a wide array, and no other term can describe it better than "eclectic".

Suffice it to say, it can be difficult doing a road trip with somebody if they hate your music. Fortunately, I have discovered the best way to make people happy. If I'm driving, I connect my music player to the speakers, hand it to my friend, and say, "you DJ with my music."

Basically, what happens is my friend will go through my music player and find whatever songs they enjoy and play them. Since my music player exclusively has music I enjoy listening to, then we will always agree. They won't pick anything they don't like, and they can't pick anything I don't like.

This technique has uses beyond road trips, of course. I am starting a collaborative project with a fellow writer, and the first question is, "what should we write about?" I draw a blank, but my friend is bursting with ideas. So naturally, I let him take the lead. He writes down all his thoughts for interesting subjects and sends them to me. I peruse the list, pick the ones from it that I find equally appealing, and say that any of them would be fine. (Alternatively, I could have just picked one and ended it there.)

It's the exact same technique. I DJ with his music. We can't lose and there's no argument.

Admittedly, this system is not infallible. If I come into the arrangement with an idea I really like, the process can be drawn out. If we cannot agree on a subject, then we're at an impasse (and you should consider it a sign that the collaboration may not be the best idea). I also recognize that having more than two people adds to the complexity of it (though you can turn it into a multi-step project where two people agree on a list, then the third one further narrows it, and so on).

Still, compared to all the other ideas I've come across, I believe it's the best.