This month’s contribution to the Self-Review Series comes from the editor’s desk. Thanks, , for letting me jump in. Self-reviews are pointless. They take too much time. They’re redundant. Part One of this series is meant to convince you otherwise. All the same, Riki and I have recently asked a number of judges why they don’t […]
Category: Motivation
Steet Smarts: Feedback and the 4-Minute Mile
Let me tell you a story about the 4-minute barrier for the world record one-mile run. For nearly a decade, the record stood untouched at 4:01.4. People thought running a mile in under four minutes was literally impossible. Then, in 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4. The next month, John Landy broke the […]
Taking Selfies – Part One
Self reviews are somehow simultaneously the easiest and hardest type of review. What makes them so, and how can you average those two sides out to find a happy medium? It’s common for newer judges to not even realize that writing a self review is a thing that they can do. With your first exposure […]
It’s Never Too Late to Start Again
We all (hopefully) have goals. These goals have a variety of purposes, timelines, and success criteria. We will, invariably, fail at some number of our goals. It’s perfectly fine for this to happen. I started this year with the goal of writing at least one judge review at every multi-judge event I worked this year. […]
Three Years Gone
It’s always an interesting exercise looking back at your experiences and first interactions you have with people who eventually become friends. Recently I did this entirely on accident by casually roaming through the reviews I’d received early in my judging career. I took the time to open and read through a handful of them, in […]
Building a Review Dashboard
“I want to get better about writing reviews” is a good goal. “I want to identify what’s keeping me from writing reviews and fix that” is a better one. Moving from a good goal to a better one is partially a state of mind, but willpower can’t solve everything. For that, you need an analytical […]
You Never Forget Your First Review
There are two reviews that I’ll never forget: the first review I received and the first review I wrote. When I graduated to L1, I received my first review from . I was immediately impressed by his ability to communicate so much in so few words. Dave’s matter of fact tone in describing my strengths filled […]
Feedback Accountabilibuddies
RIKI: The idea of an accountabilibuddy comes from fitness and exercise. It’s much easier to stick to a diet or workout plan when you do it with a friend. You can set up a competition between you if that type of thing motivates you. You can support each other through tough times. But most often, you […]
The Review Revue
If you’re interested in reviews, reviewing reviews, viewing reviewed reviews, or even re-viewing reviewed reviews, the Review Revue is for you. In the vast majority of my discussions of reviews, judges have excuses–why they don’t write reviews or don’t like writing reviews. These excuses often boil down to fear. People are always saying that reviews […]
Busting Three Common Myths About Reviews
What is a review? Fundamentally, it is a collection of words. The words form sentences, and sometimes, though not always, those sentences even make paragraphs. The collection of words offers an observation. Reviews are that simple. So why don’t people write more reviews? Some misconceptions or myths about reviews have created complications. Today I want […]