![the wirecutter strike the wirecutter strike](https://i.ibb.co/h87zHrz/Art-Music-Photo-20.jpg)
How could I have thought that I could shop my way out of consumerism? It may be in part because Wirecutter wanted me to think that. But my “smart,” Wirecutter-inspired shopping was no less wasteful or disappointing. When I pictured what “consumerism” looked like, I imagined crappy things that use up our planet’s resources and keep us in debt and fail to make us happy. What I had thought was minimalism was nothing of the sort-it was merely snobbery. Looking back now, I can see that Wirecutter didn’t just help me satisfy pre-existing desires it created new desires and even made them seem like needs. But after reading, I was convinced I needed fancy pens. Until I saw Wirecutter’s pen recommendation, I’d been doing just fine with whatever was cheapest at the drugstore. Wirecutter solved all my pen problems.Įxcept that if I had been more skeptical, I would have noticed that I hadn’t had any pen problems. I had no idea how much nicer nice pens are! Thanks to Wirecutter, I was liberated from the mild scourges of crappy pens and clutter. In this minimalist spirit, I threw out my messy drawerful of cheap pens and replaced them with the Best Pens. I could escape the crass, endless, and wasteful pressure to acquire more stuff, because I would have only the Best Stuff. In this space, I wouldn’t be weighed down by stuff. Something like a mountain monastery or hip coffee shop with plenty of rose-gold millennial aesthetic. They said I “would never buy junk again.” When I imagined my Wirecutter-curated future, I imagined an open house, all wood and sunlight and houseplants, adorned with a few elegant objects. Wirecutter promised to help me worry less about stuff. So, in a sense, Wirecutter has saved me from cavities and bad breath-and even more importantly, from worrying about toothbrushes.
![the wirecutter strike the wirecutter strike](https://s1.nyt.com/timesmachine/pages/1/1943/11/09/87428078_360W.png)
Owning it meaningfully improves my life: I brush my teeth more because it’s easy to use. I’ve had it for eight years and it still works. The one I found was inexpensive, but not cheap, with exactly the features I wanted and nothing more. Instead of a printer, I was shopping for an electric toothbrush. And frankly, at this point, you’re over printer shopping, so you click the Wirecutter link that takes you to and two days later you’re the proud owner of the Best All-in-One Printer.Īn experience much like this led me to fall in love with Wirecutter. Plus, it comes with a scanner, which you just realized you need. (But would you regret not being able to print in color?) Ultimately you decide the Best Printer for Most People is good enough for you. (Wouldn’t it be fun to hang up nice prints?) You wonder for a moment about the budget pick. You briefly consider the gallery-quality photo printer. You read a bit about price per page and pages per minute and paper tray stability. They lay out all the printer pros and cons in a detailed essay following the recommendation. Their approach (which is detailed clearly and concisely at the top of the review) seems objective, transparent, and comprehensive. Wirecutter did all the research for you-almost 500 hours comparing and testing printers. Right away, Wirecutter points you to the Best Printer, exactly what you were looking for. You click through to Wirecutter, the Times’ product review site. So, being a bit overwhelmed-but still a person of taste and discernment-you google “best printer.” The first three results look too scammy or too nerdy, but the fourth result is the “paper of record,” the trustworthy New York Times.
![the wirecutter strike the wirecutter strike](https://www.aivanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1461283309_3718908436596.jpg)
And honestly, do you even want to comparison shop for a printer?
#The wirecutter strike free#
You’d like to trust that cute Instagram influencer, but can you be sure they’ve disclosed which brands gave them free stuff? On top of that, it’s relatively easy to buy Amazon reviews. When you look for independent reviews you find a host of blogs and YouTube channels that simply repost corporate PR. It’s borderline-impossible to distinguish between two similar printer models, let alone compare specs across brands. Printer shopping, like shopping in general, turns out to be a bewildering and stressful experience. Do you find yourself in need of a printer? OK, maybe need is a strong word, but couldn’t you use one? A personal printer might seem superfluous in the digital age, but working from home means you can’t use the one at the office and the print/ship store is stressfully crowded with people returning impulse buys.