There are some professions that get a free pass from the whole “Word of Mouth” phenomenon.
For example, urologists. It’s pretty unlikely that I’m going to go asking a wide circle of friends about a urologist they like. Most people are unlikely to spontaneously start praising or denigrating their own urologist*.
*Yes, I realize I’m doing that, but one should never mistake one’s own behavior for the default behavior of a rational human. Besides, I need something to blog about.
It’s not even likely that if you do ask someone, they’ll have an opinion about one. Unlike, say, a dentist, many people might never have visited one. And frankly, I bet you don’t want to know much about urologists unless you happened to need to choose one at that exact moment.
All this, then, is to say that if you need a Vancouver urologist (that word now sounds really funny to me), don’t go to Dr. Howard Fenster at the VGH - Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre. I don’t like his bedside manner, nor his treatment methods.
(Of course, the other important fact about professions that don’t get much word of mouth… is that when someone decides to blog about one person in particular, that opinion makes a difference.)
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)