On connoisseurs vs. snobs

When talking about anything interesting – cars, music, art, food – it’s important to remember that there’s a difference between being a connoisseur and being a snob.

Connoisseurs are annoying. Snobs are flat-out evil.

Pardon my French, but connoisseur is rooted in the French word “to know.”

Connoisseurs know things. They know when the Porsche 911 switched to the water-cooled engine, when the Rolling Stones replaced their drummer, when Clyfford Still decided to withdraw from the New York gallery scene, or when avocados are in season. All of which affect the horsepower, rhythm, palette and taste in tangible, quantifiable, substantive ways.

Snobs know some things, too. But they tend to pay attention to whatever’s irrelevant.
What snobs are interested in isn’t knowledge or excellence or achievement or beauty. Snobs are interested in status. Snobs always know the status of the things they supposedly love. They would know which Porsche James Dean died in, which fashion model Jagger was boning while recording “Sticky Fingers,” and which foods are genetically modified. 

None of those details have much bearing on the quality of the product.

The nice thing about snobs is that they’re entirely harmless. You can ignore their thoughts on the cabernet’s “legs.” You could ignore their thoughts on music, because music is a personal decision, and you can decide for yourself what’s good.

The snob, by contrast, knows mainly what other people think about the things they supposedly love. They’re the idiots who say things like: ‘Vampire Weekend’ was great before they went on SNL and got all famous.