"I think that we shouldn't be fixated all the time on the ups and downs of the weekly ratings, of the quarter-hour ratings"
About this Quote
Isaacson is taking a swing at a very specific kind of modern nervous tic: the compulsion to treat culture like a stock ticker. “Weekly ratings” and the even more granular “quarter-hour ratings” aren’t just metrics; they’re a worldview where value is whatever spikes fastest and attention is something you harvest in 15-minute slices. By naming that precision, he’s exposing its absurdity. The tighter the measurement, the more it invites panic, meddling, and short-term hacks.
The intent reads like a plea for editorial and creative patience. Isaacson, a biographer of big, slow achievements (innovators, institutions, eras), is implicitly arguing that good work rarely reveals itself on a weekly schedule. Ratings culture trains decision-makers to optimize for volatility: chase the bump, avoid the dip, punish risk, rewrite the plan midstream. It’s not just about television; it’s a critique of any system where feedback loops get so immediate that they become a leash.
The subtext is also about power. Quarter-hour data empowers executives and advertisers to second-guess storytellers in real time, substituting dashboards for judgment. Isaacson’s “shouldn’t be fixated” isn’t anti-data; it’s anti-obsession, anti-cowardice. He’s defending a different metric: whether something matters over months or years, whether it builds trust, whether it accrues meaning.
In a media ecosystem addicted to instant performance signals - from Nielsen to clicks to minute-by-minute retention graphs - the line lands as a quiet act of resistance: stop letting the measurement become the mission.
The intent reads like a plea for editorial and creative patience. Isaacson, a biographer of big, slow achievements (innovators, institutions, eras), is implicitly arguing that good work rarely reveals itself on a weekly schedule. Ratings culture trains decision-makers to optimize for volatility: chase the bump, avoid the dip, punish risk, rewrite the plan midstream. It’s not just about television; it’s a critique of any system where feedback loops get so immediate that they become a leash.
The subtext is also about power. Quarter-hour data empowers executives and advertisers to second-guess storytellers in real time, substituting dashboards for judgment. Isaacson’s “shouldn’t be fixated” isn’t anti-data; it’s anti-obsession, anti-cowardice. He’s defending a different metric: whether something matters over months or years, whether it builds trust, whether it accrues meaning.
In a media ecosystem addicted to instant performance signals - from Nielsen to clicks to minute-by-minute retention graphs - the line lands as a quiet act of resistance: stop letting the measurement become the mission.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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