Matt Bircher:

1. In aggregate, critics and ordinary people are usually about 5 points apart.
2. Usually, ordinary people review the highest-grossing movies higher. This makes sense as they are voting for these movies with their wallets, not just their reviews. Critics, meanwhile, see everything, so in theory, these films are about the same as everything else for them.
3. 2020 and 2021 have seen a major divergence in scores. Critics were consistent, while audience reviews skyrocketed to the first 90% year ever.
4. The audience scores for movies in 2021 are absolutely ridiculous. Either this was the best year for movies ever, or there’s some phenomenon going on here I can’t see in just the data.
5. 2015 was a year of peace, as the critics and the audience agreed perfectly on the quality of the top 20 movies.

Matt created a great set of charts and tables, along with a geeky Keyboard Maestro how-to. Great post.

Critics vs “Real People”: Rotten Tomatoes (and Letterboxd) Data Tells All

I purchased App Zapper probably over ten years ago, and while it doesn’t seem to have been updated in forever, it still works. Another choice, curated by Nikhil Vemu at Mac O’Clock, is the uninspired-sounding Advanced Uninstall Manager.

These uninstallers go a step further than Apple’s suggested (and simpler) method by also removing anything the app created in other directories, typically your ~/Library and /Library directories (which Apple obscures from the user).

I don’t know if deleting apps using an uninstaller will actually speed up your Mac, as Vemu suggests. It can, however, uncover large data libraries of apps that create them. For example, my installation of MailMate takes up a whopping 8 GB of data in ~/Application Support.

No, Your MacBook Really Needs An Uninstaller — Here’s Why | by Nikhil Vemu | Mac O’Clock | Dec, 2021 | Medium

On the most recent episode of Upgrade, Myke and Jason discuss whether “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie. I hope we can put this matter to bed.

Table stakes in the task management app game are, without question, the ability to winnow the flood of obligations you’ve invited into your life into a discreet, manageable list. Your list, if your capturing input–even if you’re just normal-busy–consists of 100+ things to do, either now, soon, or in the future.

Todoist shared a helpful article on the Eisenhower Matrix, and how you can adapt it for Todoist.

You can, of course, replicate such a system in OmniFocus, bolstered by the OmniFocus’s ability to defer tasks to a later date. I created a tag group:

Matrix:
– Important
– Not Important
– Urgent
– Not Urgent

My “Do It” perspective focuses on items that are tagged as “urgent” and “important,” a la the Eisenhauer Matrix, as well as anything with an emergent due date. Tasks must also be “available,” in OmniFocus parlance, meaning not on hold or deferred.

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Here’s an interesting hack to incorporate “start dates” in Todoist. I don’t like it.

Grammar Girl:

But now I need to point out a British English versus American English difference:

British writers are more likely than American writers to treat all band names as plural. For example, it’s easy to find British publications writing about the recent Coldplay tour with lines such as “Coldplay are the headliners,” and “Coldplay are asking their fans to submit requests for European tour dates.”

This convention drives me bananas.

Are Band Names Singular or Plural?

Jonathan Jarry, writing for McGill about “Awaken with JP”‘s JP Sears:

It may come as a shock to find out that not only has he become the very thing that he once ridiculed, JP Sears is now using his massive online platforms to discredit public health measures against COVID-19 and to open the door to grand conspiracy theories. Distrust is the name of the game, and he does it with comedic flair.

I remember watching JP do his “What if meat eaters acted like vegans” schtick and, having been a veg for a time in college, it was funny and cringey. It’s sad to see that he’s gone down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole, but I imagine he’s laughing all the way to the bank.

The Clown Prince of Wellness | Office for Science and Society – McGill University