Kiran Jonnalagadda (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} jace) wrote,@ 2005-08-04 12:13:00 |
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New-age evangelism
I’m speculating wildly here, so please bear with me.
Rui Carmo lives in Portugal and writes the The Tao of Mac, which is easily my favourite technology blog. Rui writes with a characteristic detachment that makes him appear very sensible, and he usually is.
Rui is also a critic of Cory Doctorow, who edits BoingBoing, another excellent blog. Cory is an outspoken critic of DRM systems and takes every opportunity to sling another shot, going to such levels that people like Rui find themselves compelled to highlight flaws in his arguments.
I suppose here that Cory doesn’t have a problem at hand with people like Rui but, in fact, needs Rui’s criticism to boost his own credibility.
We live in an age where little is taken at face value. Marketeers go all out painting their brand in the best possible light. If you listen to them, you’ll think the brand is the embodiment of perfection. In fact, you can’t help but hear them because their messages are all pervasive. You don’t need another critic singing praises that you’ve already heard.
When I go look for reviews of something, I always read the negative reviews first. They’re sometimes meaningless, like someone complaining that he wanted a smartphone that behaved like his old PDA, but this one didn’t and is therefore crap, but usually the negative reviews bring you the frustrations of real users trying to make real use of products they paid for, and that may affect you too; not of reviewers singing praises to gizmos they’re not going to be using a week later anyway. When you counter hype with criticism, you’re able to form an understanding of whether the brand actually makes sense to you.
Negative reviews bring the brand down from lofty hype to credible reality. And what applies to gizmo brands applies to people brands too.
I’m speculating wildly here, so please bear with me.
Rui Carmo lives in Portugal and writes the The Tao of Mac, which is easily my favourite technology blog. Rui writes with a characteristic detachment that makes him appear very sensible, and he usually is.
Rui is also a critic of Cory Doctorow, who edits BoingBoing, another excellent blog. Cory is an outspoken critic of DRM systems and takes every opportunity to sling another shot, going to such levels that people like Rui find themselves compelled to highlight flaws in his arguments.
I suppose here that Cory doesn’t have a problem at hand with people like Rui but, in fact, needs Rui’s criticism to boost his own credibility.
We live in an age where little is taken at face value. Marketeers go all out painting their brand in the best possible light. If you listen to them, you’ll think the brand is the embodiment of perfection. In fact, you can’t help but hear them because their messages are all pervasive. You don’t need another critic singing praises that you’ve already heard.
When I go look for reviews of something, I always read the negative reviews first. They’re sometimes meaningless, like someone complaining that he wanted a smartphone that behaved like his old PDA, but this one didn’t and is therefore crap, but usually the negative reviews bring you the frustrations of real users trying to make real use of products they paid for, and that may affect you too; not of reviewers singing praises to gizmos they’re not going to be using a week later anyway. When you counter hype with criticism, you’re able to form an understanding of whether the brand actually makes sense to you.
Negative reviews bring the brand down from lofty hype to credible reality. And what applies to gizmo brands applies to people brands too.
