> I like to explore alternatives to the most popular choice, but more often than not I end up back at the #1 consensus choice. Popularity is only a decent prox

> I like to explore alternatives to the most popular choice, but more often than not I end up back at the #1 consensus choice. Popularity is only a decent proxy for consensus if people actually look at the other options. I've been burned by trusting this metric more times than I can count.