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Mossberg profile

At any one time, I’ve got a half-dozen issues of the New Yorker laying around my place, and every once in a while I’ll pick up an old one to see what I might have missed the first time around. Last week, I read a profile of Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg. It’s a fantastic examination of a career that has moved from politics to prototypes, and from print to the online world. The piece also demonstrates why a voice like Mossberg’s has continued to be heard despite the democratization of technology writing via the internet.

Rick Hunt of Shared Demand captures the secret of Mossberg’s success thusly: “Walt sussed out long ago that, in technology, it’s all about the user. And he’s never wavered.” The New Yorker piece raises the interesting question of the advantages and disadvantages of Mossberg’s subjectivity, namely his tendency to take his own user experience as the lens through which to view all user experiences. I wonder, is this this tendency any different than that of reviewers of books or movies? Even when putting themselves in the shoes (or desk chairs or movie seats or reading chairs) of other consumers, aren’t all reviewers limited in some way by our own experience of the product? Perhaps the best reviewers fight this tendency and win, or admit their subjectivity up front and reverse the process, inviting the reader to put himself or herself in the shoes of the reviewer.

Got an example of a good reviewer, or a thought on what makes a good one? Holler at us at blog at closerlook dot com.