Editor's desk: The difference between liking something and thinking it's good

July 21, 2014

I watch a lot of movies and TV shows. Not all of them are good. Not all of them have the most captivating actors, the most polished scripts, the most engaging direction, or the highest production values. Some of them are, to put it kindly, silly, awkward, rough around the edges, and in one way or another complete and utter rubbish. Yet, I love them. Likewise, there's are some beautiful, brilliant, magnificent works of art that I just don't like. Not one bit. Why is that?

Because, people. We can completely enjoy a modern Steven Seagal movie but not be able to stand a moment of Downton Abby. We can listen to hours of Miley Cyrus and not a minute of Pachelbel's Canon in D Major. We can be endlessly fascinated by Android and bored to tears by Windows Phone. We can gorge ourselves on McDonald's and turn up our noses at The Fat Duck. And we can be enchanted by a Timberman and completely ignore Threes!.

The subjective measure of what we like is completely different than the objective measure of how good something is. Beyond that, what suits our mood and tastes at one moment can be wildly different than the effort and skill put into producing it.

All of this is fine. It's great. It's what makes us who we are — humans all dressed and coiffed and alive in wondrous diversity. It's fantastic, except when we choose to fight about it. Except when we forget that our personal tastes are just those — personal.

According to GigaOm, Netflix is testing out a way for me to hide my dumb Steven Seagal binges from my family and friends so I don't risk them mocking me. Apple lets you hide iTunes purchases and your web history already, and will be adding even more privacy guards in iOS 8, including Duck Duck Go so you can even hide your silly searches from Google.

There are obviously some occasions where you really want some things to remain private, but watching dumb movies, reading silly stories, and searching for nonsense — worrying about being judged by your peers for simply being a human being — shouldn't be one of them.

So you'll forgive me if I don't hide Arrow season 1 on Netflix or ABBA Gold on iTunes. If I pull out a Nexus 5 at CES. If I order a quarter-pounder with cheese (no, they're not called royals with cheese here!). And if I, on occasion, play Flappy Birds like nobody's business. Why is that?

Because, a person. And it makes me smile.

Changes coming to iMore!

I spent a lot of last week in meetings and doing behind-the-scenes planning. I hate that stuff and I love it. I hate not writing. I'm a writer. I have to write. I have to get this stuff out of my head and onto a page. But I love building things too, and building big things requires planning.

We've passed 30 million monthly readers on Mobile Nations, the community of sites iMore belongs to alongside Android Central, Connectedly, CrackBerry, and Windows Phone Central. That's an amazing number.
We've passed 8 million monthly readers on iMore. That's even more amazing to me. We're honored and humbled by your attention, and can't thank you enough for it.

We don't take that as a sign to slow down. Rather, we take it as a sign to double down.

Newsroom is doing a terrific job handling the industry stories that come our way every day. Derek Kessler has assembled a hell of a team and they're getting better and better every week. (And yes, Newsroom is still hiring, so if you're into tech writing and want to be part of the best team in mobile, read this and follow the directions at the bottom.
With Newsroom covering the news, the editors at iMore can concentrate more than ever on editorial. Even taking a quick look at what the features team put out this week amazes me. I couldn't be prouder. And they're doing it every week.

Yet there remains, day in, day out, stories that we're not covering, news and apps and content and accessories we're just not getting to.

Well, we're working very, very hard on changing that. We're working on something that will improve our daily coverage but stay digestible, that will let us cover more without adding to the noise and clutter, that will let those who are interested stop and take a look and find their way to more, but leave those who aren't interested to go on about their way. And we're doing it keeping in mind everything that I talked about at the top of this piece.

It's going to involve some big changes, and a lot of work for everyone here, mostly behind the scenes. But it's going to be worth it. It's going to be an amazing year. I can't wait for you all to see what we have planned! (And I can't wait to get back to writing!)