If you can't do better…
31st August 2009
If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all! I'd like to see you do better! — And so on. How can people not see the logical fallacy in this? Just because I can't/don't do something (either at all or better), I have no right to criticize it? Seriously?
Let me give you a blatantly obvious example.
Say you're given a brand new car for a test ride. You get in with the vehicle's creator (how you got to know a person like this is something I'll leave to your imagination). You notice that the headlights are facing away from the car, so that you can't see the middle of the road in front of you.
“Well… wouldn't it, you know, be better if the headlights faced the road so I could see?” you say to the car maker. He immediately jumps and starts shouting at you: “What?! Well I'd like to see you make a better car if you're such an expert! I gave you a free ride! You don't have to be here if you don't like it!”
At that moment, you're probably sitting there staring at him dumbfounded by the ridiculousness of what he just said. For some reason, this doesn't strike people when they come across criticism of smaller things like, say, drawings or blog posts. Sure, a lot of people can draw or write. "Why don't you go and make your own blog, see if people like it better, huh?" Yeah, but have you noticed that most video game reviewers actually don't make games? Or that film critics don't make movies? Or book reviewers?
Sure, negative criticism can make you feel bad, especially if it's ill-intended, but if you can put your feelings aside, you'll realize that feedback from others actually makes you improve. Isn't that usually a good thing? Unless you want to remain a bad artist/writer/whatever. Besides, negative comments can be made hilarious, if done right (for whatever reason, you can't usually make positive criticism sound funny, at least not as easily)! Sarcasm, ridicule and absurdities come into play, snarky comments appear and hilarity ensues! Humor is good for you!
So there you go! Criticize all you want, feedback is a good thing! Even negative feedback (just don't diss, that's neither funny nor valuable).
Comments (0)
No comments for this post. Be the first one to comment!
Post a comment!
Your e-mail address won't be displayed, it's used for confirmation. We use Gravatar for avatars, which is also bound to your e-mail address.