Criticism Often Says More About Who Gave It Than Your Work

Constructive criticism is a pretty awesome tool for figuring out how to improve your efforts. At the same time, criticism might say more about the person giving it than it does your own work. It can be helpful to remember this if you have trouble taking criticism too personally.

Photo by Brewbooks.

99U says it helps to shift the way we think about criticism so we can learn to take it better:

See feedback as giving you information about the person giving it — not as giving you information about yourself. Perhaps your boss has given you the feedback that your work on a recent project is “bad.” So here’s the question: Does that give you any facts about your work, your talent? I’d argue it doesn’t. But it does tell you something about your boss’ preferences and taste.

Understanding feedback in this way — as providing information only about the person giving it — is liberating, especially for creatives who will always have to deal with a range of highly subjective assessments.

Beyond just learning to accept it better, this is also solid advice for understanding a boss or client’s needs and preferences in the first place. It’s also an important point to remember if someone gives you feedback that doesn’t seem to make sense, or that many other people don’t agree with.

Criticism is great, but for these reasons, it’s useful to consider your source. Check out the full post at the link below.

A Toolkit for Unhooking from Criticism [99U]