One of the cornerstones of science is that the result of any experiment must be reproducible. If it isn't, the test or experiment is considered invalid — an idiosyncratic result rather than an example of the rule.
It is equally true that many of us aren't concerned if our responses don't fall into this reproducible category. We want things that are tailored to us and our idiosyncrasies rather than a statistical average that has been determined to be the rule.
In brief, scientific and statistical validity doesn't make us happy — no matter how useful or necessary it is. Our experiences do.
I was thinking of this the other day as I listened to the subscribers portion of an episode of App Stories+, in which Federico Viticci discussed his own personal preference for iPads Pro larger screen sizes even when there are ways to provide external screens.
Unlike some of the internet trolls who can't pass up a post about an iPad Mini without telling the poster that they are wrong to like the device, Viticci focused on what he liked and why — what made the larger screened iPad Pro the device that was best for him.
I had already been thinking about writing this post when I listened to that episode of App Stories+ and was continuing to mull over it a day or two later as I read the trolls' critiques of people's preferences for the Mini on Threads.
After listening and reading, I wanted to do a little more than just return to the theme of how much I like the iPad Mini’s form factor. Somehow, I wanted to make this post as much about you, gentle reader, as it is about me.
Because YMMV based on your preferences, needs, and pleasures, the device that you want to use will be the best-choice-for-you and not be the "best" choice.
Over the course of this experiment, I have come to the surprising but, in hindsight, obvious conclusion that the iPad Mini is the best-choice-for-me* and the more technologically impressive eleven inch iPad Pro, which is the "best" choice for me, is not.
There is a lot to like about the iPad Pro and there are still times I will reach for it instead of the Mini (FaceTime calls to my family leap to mind — although the AppleTV's ability to make FaceTime calls may change that). But the slower pace of handwriting on the Mini brings me a greater sense of contentment with my work than typing does.
* As I've written before, my ability to work on and with the iPad Mini and Apple Pencil is due to my work being primarily text based rather than image or video based.