I don't really have a big statement to make with this post. I just think a lot of criticism is worthless -- particularly vague criticism.
Have you ever heard of Skinner's pigeon experiments?
The idea was, if pigeons were rewarded with a food pellet for a certain behavior, they could be trained to do that behavior.
But what would happen if food pellets were given at random intervals? The pigeons would *think* they were being rewarded for something, but they weren't. They ended up doing elaborate dances to try to get the food to come out.
I think this is like the reaction of a person to getting vague criticism, like, "This sucks." What should I do to be better? Does this make it better? Does this? Does this? How about this? You end up doing an elaborate pigeon dance to get the right response from someone who's giving random responses.
As an example of unhelpful criticism, I remember when I was younger, my mother said my drawings looked "flat". "What do you mean, they need more shading?" "No, they look flat." "What do you mean, there's no perspective?" "No, it looks flat." You might as well just change stuff randomly as try to respond to the critique.
I think, years later, what she might have meant is that I wasn't using Construction.
Stephen King on giving critiques: It seems to occur to few of the attendees that if you have a feeling you just can't describe, you might just be, I don't know, kind of like, my sense of it is, maybe in the wrong fucking class.
Have you ever heard of Skinner's pigeon experiments?
The idea was, if pigeons were rewarded with a food pellet for a certain behavior, they could be trained to do that behavior.
But what would happen if food pellets were given at random intervals? The pigeons would *think* they were being rewarded for something, but they weren't. They ended up doing elaborate dances to try to get the food to come out.
I think this is like the reaction of a person to getting vague criticism, like, "This sucks." What should I do to be better? Does this make it better? Does this? Does this? How about this? You end up doing an elaborate pigeon dance to get the right response from someone who's giving random responses.
As an example of unhelpful criticism, I remember when I was younger, my mother said my drawings looked "flat". "What do you mean, they need more shading?" "No, they look flat." "What do you mean, there's no perspective?" "No, it looks flat." You might as well just change stuff randomly as try to respond to the critique.
I think, years later, what she might have meant is that I wasn't using Construction.
Stephen King on giving critiques: It seems to occur to few of the attendees that if you have a feeling you just can't describe, you might just be, I don't know, kind of like, my sense of it is, maybe in the wrong fucking class.
