I watched several college football games over the past few days. They demonstrated the value of sports punditry to be:
Zero.
Worthless.
Laughable.
One well known ESPN football pundit from the South who argued that Alabama SHOULD have been in the playoffs, and it didn't matter who won the Oregon-Ohio State game or other matchups because they hadn't played the REAL team on the slate, Georgia, had his asshat handed to him on a silver platter.
Same exact thing happened to him last year.
He wasn't alone. Other pundits were equally embarrassed by the outcomes of a variety of other games. Why do people take this stuff seriously?
Which brings us to (ta-da!) Gear Reviews.
Let's assume for the moment that some of the zillion people claiming to be experts have any experience using the gear in professional settings. What is the value of their review if they aren't YOU, with your tastes, musical styles and experiences?
[Never mind that most of them couldn't find their asses with both hands in a real, big time recording session...]
Wow, you got that right! The correct answer is:
ZERO.
Worthless.
Laughable.
What is the value to you of any so-called advice you get on an Internet forum where no one knows anything about your tastes, what you play, how you play it, your experience, etc (this includes the advice I give people, by the way):
You guessed right again. The answer is, of course:
ZERO.
Worthless.
Laughable.
Magazine reviews?
ZERO.
Worthless.
Laughable.
Because the fact is, when the teams take the field, when you use your own gear to do the work, when you judge the tone of something, the only thing that matters - literally - has nothing whatsoever to do with reviews, pundits, self-appointed experts.
How many pieces of gear have you bought after a glowing review that you later said, "Great XYZ, but I didn't bond with it?"
What matters is the outcome, not the prediction. The Important Whos and the Self Appointed Thems have nothing more than:
Opinions. And their opinions are really no better than your opinions.
You know what reviews are good for? Showing you something you haven't seen before that you might want to check out for yourself. And it ends there.
As they say in sports, that's why they play the games.
Zero.
Worthless.
Laughable.
One well known ESPN football pundit from the South who argued that Alabama SHOULD have been in the playoffs, and it didn't matter who won the Oregon-Ohio State game or other matchups because they hadn't played the REAL team on the slate, Georgia, had his asshat handed to him on a silver platter.
Same exact thing happened to him last year.
He wasn't alone. Other pundits were equally embarrassed by the outcomes of a variety of other games. Why do people take this stuff seriously?
Which brings us to (ta-da!) Gear Reviews.
Let's assume for the moment that some of the zillion people claiming to be experts have any experience using the gear in professional settings. What is the value of their review if they aren't YOU, with your tastes, musical styles and experiences?
[Never mind that most of them couldn't find their asses with both hands in a real, big time recording session...]
Wow, you got that right! The correct answer is:
ZERO.
Worthless.
Laughable.
What is the value to you of any so-called advice you get on an Internet forum where no one knows anything about your tastes, what you play, how you play it, your experience, etc (this includes the advice I give people, by the way):
You guessed right again. The answer is, of course:
ZERO.
Worthless.
Laughable.
Magazine reviews?
ZERO.
Worthless.
Laughable.
Because the fact is, when the teams take the field, when you use your own gear to do the work, when you judge the tone of something, the only thing that matters - literally - has nothing whatsoever to do with reviews, pundits, self-appointed experts.
How many pieces of gear have you bought after a glowing review that you later said, "Great XYZ, but I didn't bond with it?"
What matters is the outcome, not the prediction. The Important Whos and the Self Appointed Thems have nothing more than:
Opinions. And their opinions are really no better than your opinions.
You know what reviews are good for? Showing you something you haven't seen before that you might want to check out for yourself. And it ends there.
As they say in sports, that's why they play the games.
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