For many years, I’ve had an issue with professional reviewers and the number of devices they cover. The smartphone market is ever-growing with what seems like hundreds of devices each year, leaving the period between first use and review desperately short for many people who can and does present issues.
Admittedly, high-profile reviewers know exactly what they are looking for and are so used to testing devices they can conveniently give consumers a good overview of the device with limited usage. However, this often leads to very staged reviews that cover very basic things. There are only so many videos you can watch that tell you what the battery life is like, how it feels to swipe around, and then show you a few camera test shots. You simply can’t get a good idea of a the new device can do in real life usage in the desperately short periods that exist now.
As a result of this, I started to rely on smaller creators, or people I followed on social media, to give me some real-world data. There is no shortage of excellent writers and videographers making their filing known. Reviewing their devices and giving their opinions. Of course, you then need to think about bias and also build in a period of positivity that dominates the first few days or weeks. It’s exciting having a new device in your hands, and understandably this means that the rose-tinted glasses are firmly fixed in place.
This post isn’t really about phone reviews though, it is to point out that honeymoon periods exist for more than just your latest love interest. New things take time to show real
usefulness and as anyone who has met someone who turned out to be too good to be true, sometimes time is the best indicator of issues. Matt Birchler summed this up in his unusually sassy post, ’I’ve heard this story before’. Writing about new productivity methods, he said, “Making changes to how you work can often feel invigorating at the start, but cracks develop over time.”
He’s wrong about pen and paper (I love it), but he’s dead right about the tendency to sing about something without giving it the proper evaluation period. Which is completely understandable. When you think you’ve found something, particularly something you think can make a difference to others, it’s exciting to preach. I am very guilty of this, writing blog posts about new systems that only last a few weeks more. These days, I tend to move things much less and mess around with systems only when they need it.
The friction of new habits takes time to work itself out. The excitement wains and motivation and energy defaults to the simplest path. It doesn’t matter if you have a new partner, a new productivity system or a new gadget, review periods take time to work out and that’s OK.