# Fish: a tap essay — user reviews > 79 indexed App Store user reviews of Fish by Robin Sloan, rated 4.90/5 from 38 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fish-a-tap-essay/id510560804/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fish-a-tap-essay/id510560804.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 35 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 0 ## Newest reviews (17 of 79) ### 5/5 — When you lose your compass come back to this *2014-12-23, version 1.1.2* Thought provoking. Imaginative meld of very very short essay and new media. You must read Robin's "Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Book Store". Robin, we want more!! ### 5/5 — Insanely great. *2013-12-05, version 1.1.2* Brilliant execution. Reminds of The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop. ### 5/5 — Beautiful *2013-02-25, version 1.1.2* Just amazing. It has a beautiful look, an amazing feel, an awesome and well timed sense of humour and amazing quotes. I will look at my fish, now. ### 5/5 — ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! *2013-01-21, version 1.1.2* I've clicked through this several times and don't plan on quitting anytime soon. Genius. ### 5/5 — Awesome, thought-provoking read. *2012-12-04, version 1.1.1* LOOK AT YOUR FISH! ### 5/5 — A mirror *2012-12-02, version 1.1.1* Such a powerful read. The details are so captivating! I love how the ending pills the narrative together. Thank you for such an inspiring experience ### 5/5 — Poignant and beautiful *2012-12-01, version 1.1.1* Get this app. If you don't appreciate it you're probably missing the point. ### 5/5 — Yes, yes, yes. *2012-11-22, version 1.1* This is brilliant. As a creative, as a thinker and as a UX professional, I want everyone who is any, all or none of those things to experience this. ### 5/5 — Very Creative *2012-11-13, version 1.1* Perfect app for a lazy Sunday when feeling creative and philosophical. Nice work. ### 5/5 — Interesting *2012-11-07, version 1.1* H ### 5/5 — Lovely *2012-10-23, version 1.1* A great thought provoking app that deserves wider recognition. Beautifully presented with a lovely sense of humour. Something to return to. ### 5/5 — Beautiful *2012-10-11, version 1.1* You'll find yourself coming back to this essay time and again. Well worth the read. ### 5/5 — Stupid good *2012-08-09, version 1.1* Look, I've never written an app review before. It's not that I don't appreciate the good apps (or vote:delete the bad) I have - I do. But Fish. Fish, I'm grateful for. Beautiful, polished, innovative, compelling, fun. All of that, and it made me smile, too. ### 5/5 — I am now weeping tears of delight *2012-07-11, version 1.1* For heaven's sake LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL THING. Will you love it? Why not find out? ### 5/5 — Great thoughts *2012-06-02, version 1.1* Thought provoking. Download it and read through! ### 5/5 — Amazing essay *2012-06-01, version 1.1* This is seriously one of my favorite apps. It's surprisingly thought-provoking and has inspired me to work on curating my own personal canon. ### 5/5 — Between. *2012-05-24, version 1.1* I have an iPhone folder called Books and one called Magazines. Had to create a new one called Reading just for this. Robin Sloan always manages to sit in between the categories. And I love being part of the audience. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 3/5 — Good insight but *2019-01-03, version 2.0* Updated version too long. Had the original which, as noted, stopped working. But I liked it better, quicker to the important point. Watched & shared it often. Any chance you might put up the original also? ### 4/5 — Neat *2017-02-09, version 1.1.2* Genius little old app. ### 4/5 — Yay. *2012-07-18, version 1.1* Interesting juxtaposition (or harmony? I'm of two minds) of looking twice and being unable to go back. Fun type. One of the better 5 minutes today. ### 4/5 — Great! *2012-03-25, version 1.0* The author gets it!! Great insight and perspective!! ### 4/5 — Interesting *2012-03-22* Good read and an interesting experiment. Gave me pause afterward to think about the format and the content, which alone makes me enjoy it more than I thought I would. ### 5/5 — Highly rewatchable *2024-08-15, version 2.0* This 10-min long “tap essay” explores the difference between liking content and loving it, through a story of examining a fish until transcendence. It’s free and immeasurably valuable. I’ve reflected upon it countless times over the last 10 years. ### 5/5 — Good words, like good food take time… *2022-12-17, version 2.0* While I might be biased, it would seem no one reads for content anymore. Instead, articles are scanned for confirmation of opinions. This essay takes a bit of work to enjoy. Challenge yourself; take a moment to enjoy pure communication. Much thanks to the author, Robin Sloan. ### 5/5 — Something pretty pure *2022-02-05, version 2.0* There’s very little like this on the App Store, or in the tech world at large. We had it with Wordle, for a short time, but we all knew it wasn’t going to last. Bravo Robin, this is wonderful. ### 5/5 — This is definitely worth downloading! *2020-01-27, version 2.0* Lel GG WP. XD ### 5/5 — I reread this every year *2019-08-05, version 2.0* At least once a year sonething reminds me of this. I think I have had a copy on my phone since it was first released in 2012 and I’m so glad it got updated to fit newer ios versions. I highly recommend this as a short but deeply thought-out piece to consider what we do with our time and attention in the high speed “internet age.” ## Most praised reviews (5 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Here again *2019-01-16, version 2.0* I’ve downloaded this app today, again, after a couple of years after reading it for the first time. I guess I love it. Also, it’s great you included your little story at the end. It brings this to the present somehow. I totally recommend looking at your fish as a therapy. Thanks! ### 5/5 — Beautiful little app *2018-08-08, version 2.0* This is a 2012 app refreshed for 2018. A short, thought provoking essay for today’s times. Enjoy! ### 5/5 — Reading is rereading *2017-06-03, version 1.1.2* This is so good, it could almost be called a new art form. Robin Sloan has taken the medium--a medium with which we are both plagued by and enamored with--and transformed it into a calling for a higher reality: to love is to return. We are inundated with trash, with ads, with godlike movies and books and articles and this is not the end, but the beginning. We will only be swamped with more and more media, more and more things begging is to buy, listen, watch. It's the choices that choke us. This app lifts you out of that, places you I'm a better place, and not only helps you learn, but helps you learn to learn. To love and redefine love. To look in your heart and find what you really return to. What is it? It isn't the next thing. It isn't everything. As Nabokov once said: "Reading is rereading." We are only going to really love something when we shut out that endless flow, look within. This is an app that not only reinforced what I thought, but redefined what it is that's driving us. The message is clear: when you're free to do everything, it's hard to choose anything. ### 5/5 — Love *2017-04-13, version 1.1.2* I love this app. I have returned to it once again. It is inspiring and leaves me feeling that I am on a path that is too hurried, too frenetic. Slow down. Look. Look. Return. Thanks, Robin! ### 5/5 — Brilliant *2015-09-04, version 1.1.2* Simple, brilliant, focused. One of my all-time favorite apps. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-10.*