Today, I found a post written by John Siracusa called “Hypercritical”. The two page piece explains how design and art relate to critics and how the two are so closely related. I’ve had to be my own critic for years as I started my own blog ten years ago and how I’ve started companies and failed numerous times but the problem with acting as your own critic is you’re never hard enough on yourself and this is why social media has helped me. I’m able to bounce ideas off a group of thousands of people and receive instant feedback. My only complaint with using the web for feedback is the cynical anonymous trolls generally give their opinion in the form of hurtful and hateful feedback instead of honest feedback. I’d like to share a section from John’s post.
“…criticism, for lack of a better word, is good. Criticism is right. Criticism works. Criticism clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit…
Okay, let me try that again. Actually, I’m on the same page as Gordon Gekko in one important respect. Like greed, criticism gets a bad rap, especially when it’s presented in large doses. It’s impolite. It’s unnecessarily obsessive. It’s just a bummer. But the truth is, precious little in life gets fixed in the absence of a good understanding of what’s wrong with it to begin with.
This character flaw, this curse, this seemingly most useless of skills is actually the yin to the more widely recognized yang of creative talent. Is a preternatural ability to find fault enough on its own to make something great? Probably not, but it can help amplify mundane competencies and produce results well beyond what you could have achieved with your creative skills alone.
No, we can’t all be Steve Jobs, but there’s room in life for both the grand and the prosaic. Every day is a new chance to do something a little bit better (“I am the Steve Jobs of this sandwich!”), to find something wrong with what you’re doing and understand it well enough to know how to fix it. If this is not your natural proclivity, you may have to work at it a bit. I think you’ll be pleased with the results…but not completely, I hope.”
John nails it on the head by summing up exactly how criticism helps to breed and influence the creatives and I admit that my reception to feedback has been slim. My goal with creating a barrier around my thoughts and opinions is to discourage those that are only in it to leave negative feedback and it’s worked so far but now the only comments and feedback I’m getting are from those who praise my ideas and thoughts. This leaves me in an awkward situation as I want to hear your honest thoughts on my projects and ideas but I’m stuck. A friend of mine said to me, “you just have a bunch of web 2.0 fanboys who are kissing your ass all of the time.” I don’t feel it’s that bad but I starve for additional feedback that’s constructive even when it hurts.
What’s the missing formula? Should I take down the barriers and let the trolls in or keep barriers up and surround myself with hyper-attentive fanboys? For now, I’m only openly admitting that I need to be harder on myself and I need to take feedback better. I get defensive sometimes but its the critics who help me refine and perfect my art so I owe it to everyone to listen and apply their feedback.
The full post from John is two pages but is a great read. You can find it on Ars Technica.