From the Editor’s Desk: Nothing Works (Premium)

Nobody likes to be criticized, but there is one bit of feedback I get that's as common as it is unwelcome. It's that I'm negative.

Many of you are probably nodding your heads in agreement with that, and while I can't pretend to not understand the sentiment, I don't like it. And for so for many reasons. One of which is that it's obviously true.

To confirm this, I asked my wife if I was negative. After repeating the question back to me, a classic stalling technique, she finally responded with, "Well, sometimes." No, no. Everyone is negative sometimes. I mean, overall. This time, a pause. To which I said, "It's OK, you're not going to hurt my feelings. I'm just curious if you think I'm negative overall."

She finally answered, "Yes." Which obviously hurt my feelings. Kidding.

Look, I rationalize my behavior just like anyone would, but I also take it a step further by trying to turn this judgment into a positive. I argue, for example, that negative people will never be disappointed because they always expect the worst. I believe that my worldview is part of what makes me good as a reviewer or industry commentator as I'm less likely to be snowed under by marketing drivel; I am not a cheerleader, as so many are.

And I'm not a swirling cesspool of negativity all the time. I also make a point of identifying positive influences in my life, adopting those traits where possible, and making sure that the people I care about know that they matter to me. Heck, I’m even taking medication in part to address this issue. Collectively, this is all about me trying.

And I can praise those things I may also criticize---Big Tech companies and their leadership, products, and services most often---when warranted. It's not contradictory, for example, for me to have two different angles on tech service I rely on, like OneDrive, one in which I praise it for its reliability and the other in which I damn it for its escalating nagging and ignoring of my preferences. Nothing is perfect.

But it's worse than that, and I think that fact cuts to the core of why this negative thing bothers me so much. We are in some ways the product of our experiences. And by moving into a career in personal technology, something that was more circumstance than choice, I inadvertently put myself in the middle of an industry that moves fast, always changes, and breaks things constantly. Nothing works. Like, ever.

OK, not literally. But it feels that way sometimes. I'm not sure a day goes by when everything I use just works perfectly. That seems like something I'd notice.

The sweeping enshittification we see everywhere in our industry isn't helping. It wreaks havoc with my sense of right and wrong on one level, but also on my way of doing things. With a limited ability to remember details, I will relentlessly figure out how something works, or the best way to do something, and then utterly forget the why or how of it once it's up and running. A set-it-and forget-it k...