Yesterday, I realized something: by givings a thumbs-up to songs that were mildly tolerable, I was encouraging Pandora to play more tolerable music. In an instant, my whole strategy changed. Instead of givings a thumbs-up to anything that was okay, I only give a thumbs-up to a song if I’d consider buying it. And a thumbs-down is no longer reserved for truly awful songs, but for anything that would have caused me to change the station if I were listening in my car. (Which is to say, well over half of what’s played.)

I think there’s a good life less in here somewhere.