On writing shorter reviews →
Ben Brooks:
Just as I don’t have time for podcasts, I don’t have time to read about a new app for 30 minutes when I could try it for myself in 5 minutes. It makes no sense to read these beastly posts when I could do the work the reviewer was supposed to do — but in less time than I would spend reading the review.
Apps, bags, knives, devices — none of those need more than a thousand or two thousand words at most. Anything more than that is poor writing, and even poorer reviewing.
I haven’t read a full app review in a long time. Most are lengthy deep-dives into an app that shows some signs of promise, but has little hope of reaching its potential.
There’s a certain craft to writing such long reviews, but I simply don’t have the time or the attention cache to put towards them.
I like Ben’s idea of capping off reviews, but I wouldn’t go that far. A review needs to be as long as it needs to be. But I would prefer that the reviews get to the point.