The benefit of reviews

I was perfectly happy with this lens... until I made the mistake of watching an old review of it.

Take gear reviews with a big grain of salt. There’s nothing wrong with researching and understanding what is that you are getting for your money, especially when you are trying to decide between two similar lenses. But don’t forget to consider your unique needs.

I’ve seen this played out in every field of my life. I get stuck on what reviewers think about something, and use those opinions as a proxy for how I’ll enjoy the item I’m about to purchase. Even funnier is when I look up something I happily own (or have rented, in the case of a movie) and find out it’s univerally panned.

The Wirecutter used to be my dream site, along with Consumer Reports. Here lay the sum knowledge of humanity on a topic, ready for my consumption, ready to present up to me on a platter the exact thing I need, no reservations. The result is far more nuanced.

My wife first pointed my obsession with reviews when we’d rent movies via RedBox; back before streaming when the risk of messing up meant a wasted trip out to town and back.

I agonized over our movie picks; still do. I’d spend time finding the perfect movie that would work for both of us, based on reviews and audience scores, and all the rest.

And sometimes the movie absolutely bombed. Other times it worked. But in general my process for narrowing down that perfect movie was imperfect at best.

Then we watched a movie, probably Pink Panther 2. It was hilarious, we laughed the entire way through and were in just the right mood for that type of film. I looked it up later. 13% on rotten tomatoes. That didn’t match up at all with how I’d perceived the movie. Something changed in my brain.

I’m not a movie reviewer. I don’t watch everything out there, in fact I watch a subset of a subset of what’s available. So when something comes off as too tropey, has been done too much before, I frankly don’t care. I probably haven’t seen that thing happen before. I—somewhat hilarious for my wife—am unable to predict the plot of where a movie goes. I’m surprised by plot twists all the time and am generally delighted when they arrive. She, on the other hand, pretty much knows what’s going to happen, and is gracious enough to keep her thoughts to herself while we’re watching.

I still find benefit in what others think, but I no longer look up the Rotten Tomatoe score of anything. I don’t want to know. Instead I take a different approach.

When someone I know recommends a movie or show I’ll write it down in an Apple Note. If it gets recommend again, especially if by a second person, that title gets elevated in my mind.

Usually by the third or fourth recommendation I know I’ve got a winner on my hand.

I’ll also count, though weighted less heavily, Reddit recommendations, and things I find online. What does get more weight is podcasts, when someone I’ve listened to for years recommends something to watch. By definition if I’m listening to them on a podcast I probably have a lot in common with them.

The best formula, though, is when someone recommends a title and says that I’ll enjoy it if I liked other specific titles. I now use that myself often for books, movies and shows, and games.

Have you tried [insert name of thing]? No? It’s kind of like [insert name of several other things they’ve hopefully tried]. If you like those, you’ll like this, but with these twists.

One note here, I’m dogmatic about spoilers. I refuse to spoil any element of anything, except what one might discover in the first thirty minutes of consuming that thing. I want to get someone excited enough without knowing what will happen. I also request the same when taking on a recommendation.

Via aows.