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I'd agree that people need things to latch onto to appear smart. For example, was Einstein the greatest scientist ever, or is it an easy thing to talk about to look smart; if you were talking with a group of people and wanted to look intelligent would you talk about Einstein which they all know and can bob their heads to, or Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who won't get you any street cred with the people around you.

This also happens in art, where people latch on to popular names so they can pop them out in conversations and every can nod and agree. Was Picasso really that great of an artist? or does he just have a name people recognize so people go with it. If Picasso's work was released on Instagram today, would anyone even look at it?

And back to the books, the same; these are are books people can safely say the names of and have everyone nod along and agree about how smart and cultured you are for knowing the correct names to say.

I really dislike these lists and those github repos of great software for xyz with 100s of links. what I want is 1-3 thing you really like and why.