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[Mungrul]

Doesn't Dwarf Therapist have a Dwarf pane that'll outline a dwarf's personality for you?
That might be a quicker and easier way of choosing.
Personally, the last time I had to choose I chose a disposable peasant with no friends, which was just as well as he went sock chasing during an ambush.

[Mimidormi]

I avoid on purpose picking one of the starting seven for baron, unless i have a certain theme in mind for that fortress, i somewhat dislike the idea of them becoming nobles.

I check the dwarves' preferences as they migrate into the map, since those that like impossible stuff like anchovy bone and wagon wood (believe me, i had it happen) will join the militia full time before they even dare to run for mayor, and since i'm at it, i look for the best baron candidate, write down somewhere the name, or give them a nickname.

I found the less annoying nobles to be the ones with a liking for 3 or more craftable items (that aren't the main export of the fortress, of course), since more variety may mean less production orders and more export vetoes.
Favorite stone/wood/silk/fiber/colors/animals/penchant for decorations like squares, crosses, stars, circles, and phobias, don't seem to influence mandates or demands in the slightest (can anyone confirm this?), only the favorite metal, leather, bone and the item types seem to matter.

What i think are the best preferences for items: furniture, weapons and armor (if the place allows a good harvest of goblinite), trap components, mechanisms, statues, quivers (only if you have a source of leather), crafts (usually really easy to produce).

Preferences i do not recommend: large gems (unless the fort has a glass based industry, they can be a pain to obtain even from green glass), clothes (can't be remelted, if someone claims them can't be tossed in magma), bins/barrels/pots (so easy to trade them by mistake, and with 'culling on mandates' can't be brought to depot), crutches/splints (unless the fort has plenty raw materials, i hate to waste metal or wood on them), ballista arrows (this can be a boon, though, if you plan to use ballistae extensively).

[Saiko Kila]

I choose one of my seven, because I know them more or less, and they tend to be reasonable. But for mayor I don't care - I don't use justice (it's useless) and dwarves with delayed punishment get happy thoughts from that. So you have a one pissed mayor and dozens of happy workers. Is that bad?

It's not completely useless. If you set up really swanky jails your dwarves will actually get happy thoughts from being in prison. So, if a dwarf starts getting pissy and breaks a few chairs he will get thrown into club fed and come out of the ordeal happy. Some might say a legendary dining hall fixes this but if Urist McCatperson loses 10 pets in a row he will go from happy to tantruming faster than you can designate a coffin.

I never had tantruming dwarves in serious fortresses, I get them only in experiments. 10 pets is -500 to happiness, easily repairable in my experience. Anyway, I think that ignoring justice is the best, it precludes more problems than the working justice can resolve. Therefore no jails and no captains of the guard for me.

[Deus Machina]

I'm going to have to start digging through when I get to 40, too.

I just promoted my mayor in this fortress, who turned out to be an impressive miner and mason, and popular.

So far, the only things I've had a problem with are his want for a crystal glass armor stand (a bug prevents making crystal glass objects, despite me having imported some raw material), and he does still mine and build walls (usually. A bug with Dwarf Therapist?) so it's not worth it to drop him in the magma yet.

Where DT does show personality traits, I haven't seen that it shows preferences. This would be a huge help in picking a noble. Petition to add that, maybe?

I also still wish is would show translated surnames, but that's neither here nor there.

[Girlinhat]

Therapist shows personality traits (he is slow to anger) but does NOT show preferences (he likes microcline).  I've asked multiple times about a utility that could do this, either Therapist upgraded or a new utility, and gotten no response.

[yacheritsi]

I used the scouring-the-unit-list-one-at-a-time method, but used therapist to at least start with the most useless dwarves first.

My baroness likes iron, battle axes and anvils.

Score.

[Mechatronic]

Another idea is picking one that's married. It sets up a dynasty and talking to the kids makes them happy.

[Girlinhat]

You can ensure that you'll have an heir, once your current invariably dies to misplaced lever syndrome.

[Maklak]

So far I haven't had a real justice system, so I don't find checking preferences to be woth the trouble. I nominate my mayor. In my current fort my mayor only issues 2 mandates "make silver items 3/3" and "export of silver prohibited". I have 20k galena, 5.5k tetrahedrite, and some native silver on the map. Best mayor ever!

I think, I found a downside to fulfilling mandates early. I got a mandate, fulfilled it, and right after that got another mandate. Can somebody confirm this?

[Sphalerite]

I think, I found a downside to fulfilling mandates early. I got a mandate, fulfilled it, and right after that got another mandate. Can somebody confirm this?

Correct.  Each noble that can make mandates can only have a certain number active at a time.  If you fulfill a production mandate, that opens up a slot for the noble to make another mandate.  If a noble makes a mandate you know you can meet easily, it's often worthwhile to let the mandate wait till it turns yellow or red first.  That reduces the overall number of mandates you'll get.  On the other hand, if you're meeting all the production mandates quickly, the noble may make export ban mandates instead, which last a long time and compete with production mandates for the same mandate limit.

[Psieye]

You know, I've never once gotten a mandate on a specific type of stone, cloth, bone or leather. It's either the metal they like or an item they like. Now it could be a specific toy or instrument they want, but that's easy with stonecrafting or anything more advanced.

[Korva]

It happens. One mayor had a poor sod of a dwarf jailed for failing to produce cap hopper leather items. Nevermind the fact that cap hoppers are vermin.  I really dislike impossible-to-fulfill preferences like that or slade -- or worse, a preference for something that doesn't even logically exist (toad teeth ... no kidding).

[Sphalerite]

My current Mayor regularly mandates Draltha bone and Creeping Eye leather items.

[Darkmere]

One of my previous ones demanded cap hopper tooth items. And the mayor wanted an iron slab in his room. Oh and he also liked turkey leather, so I imported it by the binload.