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When Critics Go Soft, Audiences Pay the Price
Types of critics
Critics are criticized for being offenders of a few specific types:
- Overintellectual nitpickers.
- Soft touches who are paid by studios and record labels.
- Chummy logrollers. In the social media age, you'll be surrounded by a relentless enthusiasm that might make you believe that all new books are fantastic.
- Careerist contrarians. They try to stand out from the crowds with their cynical eye-catching opinions. "Daddy's Home 2 is the second coming of Molière."
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Key Ideas
The Reviewer's Fallacy
We've all have experienced shows that we've read high praise for, then been disappointed by. One of the root causes of the reviewer's fallacy is based on the opinion that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods are mediocre or worse.
It would be tiresome for critics to find new ways to condemn worthless work. The editors and owners of the publications would also not be happy with a consistently downbeat arts section. Therefore, critics are unconsciously inclined to use a rating that if something isn't very good, but is better than two-thirds of other entries in the genre, it can get a B or B-plus.
Undue credit
Critics experience so much bad work that they get accustomed to it.
When they do see originality, or arguably interesting intentions, or technical proficiency, or something that is bad but not bad in the usual way, they will give these things undue credit.
The consumers wish list
The wish list differs for different people.
In books, films, and TV, it comes down to a story to which we gratefully suspend our disbelief and allow ourselves to be carried away. In music, the distinction is between words that we find merit in and music that enhances the meaning of the words.
Different views
The set of critics’ and audiences’ interests overlap but are not the same.
The audience wants to know if they should spend their time and money on it. The critic gets in for free and has to listen or read or watch to whatever is next. Their questions are about craft and originality and wallet quality.
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The Star Wars story is a classic Hero’s Journey, in which the protagonist, Luke Skywalker in a galaxy, far, far away, learns that he is able to harness a certain force. He eventually joins the rebellion against the Galactic Empire, and along with his allies, destroys the Death Star, uniting with his father, who had fallen on the dark side.
Sequels Prequels
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The Forgetting Curve
Our memories have a 'forgetting curve', and unless we review what we see or learn, most of the content is forgotten in 24 hours, and the rest in the following days.
Due to the Interne...
Memories Are Associations
The more information that is available to us, the more we are unable to retain it. Memory means association and most information we consume may be simply buried inside, lurking deep in, and surfacing when the right cue pops up.
Binge-watching or binge-reading serves no useful purpose as we are only holding the content in our working memories. That's why schools space out the chapters and review them, helping us retain the material.
Memories Get Interwoven
The art and culture we engage our brains in turn into memories which can be unpredictable and fickle.
The books we read, the songs we hear and the movies we watch become interwoven and entangled with everything else in our lives.
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Four Steps To Building Wealth
- Don’t Be a Consumerist: keep your expenses as low as possible without sacrificing the quality of life. Spend money on things that yield lasting benefits.
- Have An Emergency Fu...
Benjamin Graham - Warren Buffett’s mentor
“Money isn’t making that much difference in how you and I live. We’re both going down to the cafeteria for lunch and working every day and having a good time. So don’t worry about money, because it won’t make much difference in how you live.”