Text Summary for the Video Impaired:
Last Tuesday I made a video post that promised a “slaughter fest” review of a piece of software called MacSpeech Dictate.
The software is pretty bad – but I think that promising to spend 800 words telling every particular where the software fell short (there was only one redeeming feature – that the company is on Twitter and one of their reps @ replied me when he saw I was in some difficulty) is a bad use of your time to read and mine to write.
This is a place where I think a lot of product reviews (and reviewers) fall short. They forget that there are humans involved – and that because there are humans involved, expectations and emotions play more into our supposedly “objective” product reviews than they’d like to believe. (After all, if I wasn’t trying to use this software to hurry up and finish my NaNoWriMo novel – i.e. if I’d not been on a super-tight deadline – I would have been much more patient and charitable, even though the software didn’t live up to the promises written on the box.)
Thanks to Danielle LaPorte (via Marissa) and Naomi for reminding me of these things without knowing they did.
In other news, I have an announcement. Or I will have an announcement. On Monday, December 14th. At a much more convenient hour. 
And one last thing: is what you’re doing in your life or your business really playing to your strengths? Is it really fulfilling you? Is it really what you need to be doing? If it’s not, why are you doing it? Re-think your strategies, and see if you can’t align your actions better with your strengths and your gifts.
Yes, I say this because I’m working on it. Nope, inspirIT isn’t going anywhere – we’re keepin’ on keepin’ on, baby! – but I’m going somewhere with it.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Charlotte, Congratulations on finishing your novel, despite the hurdles!
I really connected with your last sentence : “Realign your business on a daily basis, if at all possible, to better take into account your skills, abilities, talents, desires and what you actually want to accomplish with your time and your life”.
I can’t wait to read about your secret project.