I love Roger Ebert. I know, I know, he liked Benji: The Hunted or whatever. He’s still funnier and smarter than 99% of the critics out there. I know, because I took a poll of all of them and he was only beat by the margin of error.

Yesterday he posted a great piece about taste inspired by feedback to his Transformers 2 review. (Article discovered thanks to Videogum.) This part, especially, gets to me:

What I believe is that all clear-minded people should remain two things throughout their lifetimes: Curious and teachable. If someone I respect tells me I must take a closer look at the films of Abbas Kiarostami, I will take that seriously. If someone says the kung-fu movies of the 1970s, which I used for our old Dog of the Week segments, deserve serious consideration, I will listen.

That’s absolutely right, Roger Ebert. May everyone who is reading this post listen to Ebe’s solid advice. If someone you respect tells you he or she likes something that you do not like, you should take some time to understand why your opinions differ instead of automatically assuming your opinion is correct. Your friend will feel appreciated and you just might learn something!*

*Unless the thing you like is Friends with Money, which has been scientifically proven to be unwatchable.