How do you deal with negative feedback? \ stacker news ~Design

1290 sats \ 32 comments \ @cryotosensei 7 Jun Design

As a creator, you can’t make everyone happy. This is especially so when you have a unique vision coupled with a steely conviction to execute it. Nevertheless, if you’re producing for an audience, it’s necessary to take into account their needs and preferences so that you can offer them the best product/service within your means. Otherwise, why create in the first place?

With that in mind, how do you typically cope with negative feedback? First things first, do you call a spade a spade? Or would you reframe it by using the term “constructive criticism”? It seems that the second term is what most people use to soften the blow of their harsh words.

Last Monday, I presented twice on “Using Gen AI tools to enhance English teaching and learning” to fellow interested educators in the fraternity. I received the participants’ feedback last Friday. I’m quite amazed; they had a lot of things to say.

Positive

Thank you for sharing useful tools!
Thank you for the effort in putting together how you use different tools.
Good sharing of AI tools for lesson planning
Thank you for sharing the different platforms using AI. Will try it out in Semester 2!
Very practical tips. Now I know where to start where using AI is concerned. Thanks!
Practical and useful tips were shared.
Very clear and concise. Shared exactly what teachers can use and how.
Great sharing. Bite-sized and useful
Interesting to learn that we can create videos and explanations from AI too!
Thanks for sharing on various platform
Thanks, cryotosensei! The tools you shared seem really useful.

Negative

Sharing was quite brief. Perhaps more examples of use in class would be better.
Brief and concise, easy to understand. Would have been better if actual lesson samples were shared.
It will be great if more authentic examples of use for classroom was shared. :)
I think it would be great if cryotosensei showed more exemplars/samples of what these websites produced + explained how he used them in T&L!
Will be good to provide more examples.
Needs to be more conscious of toggling between browser and slides
Please toggle to the browser/PPT whichever you are making reference to in a timely manner. We couldn't see what you were talking about which makes the learning less effective. Was good you shared some pros and cons of the various AI tools; consider putting up a slide to summarise the differences among the AI tools. Thank you.
Presenter was merely scratching surface about the different AI tools which we could have find out ourselves. Did not even share how he has use it in the clsssroom and how it enhanced his teaching and learning for the students. There was no sharing of how it impacted the students learning
Perhaps it will be good to set parameters in terms of objectives such as no single tool is comprehensive. It all depends on the lesson objectives and how these objectives can best be supported tgrough the different tools. There's a tendency to repeat ideas that's already shared. Greater conciseness will be good. The AI tools shared are useful. Thank you.
More hands on needed
Would be great if presenter showed actual lesson done after using the tools shared
Sharing only 20 minutes. Maybe can spend further time to show clearly how the apps are conducted
More examples of how the different tools are used for T&L; sharing on the limitations of the tools
I'm looking at leveraging of AI for students with autism esp. in a SPED sch.
Hope to see if presenter has tried asking students to use these tools themselves for self directed learning

I compiled the participants’ feedback and split it into two categories: positive vs negative. This was to prevent me from ruminating about my perceived failure. My presentation did provide some value to some participants.

I think it’s a good idea to spot patterns in the negative feedback. For example, many participants asserted that I should have provided more examples, toggled between my slides and the browser more effectively, and shared how I had conducted my actual lessons. Extracting these three points will help me avoid these pitfalls should I do a similar presentation in the future.

Im glad that I am penning all this down because I can take actionable steps in order to benefit myself. It’s like my teacher participants have done the thinking for me so that I will know how to improve. Recording everything in black and white also diminishes the power the negative feedback has on my mind and self-esteem.

Are you good at handling negative feedback?

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118 sats \ 5 replies \ @BTCFC 7 Jun

I used to be terrible at handling negative feedback. I would take it too personal, either by taking the feedback way to seriously, or my ego would get hurt and I would be more in a 'F you' mentality to the person who gave me the feedback. But lately, I've shifted my perspective from seeing feedback as either a learning experience or not instead of positive or negative.

For instance, I realized when the feedback I receive is kind of shallow or not well explained I would catch my ego say, "See! This person doesn't even know what they're talking about! He / she has no right to critique me!". So now, I either just let the negative feedback go, learning internally that such negative feedback triggers my ego so next time I'm not as easily effected, or I ask the person to explain further what he / she meant when they gave the feedback, and try and communicate to understand and learn externally from why the negative feedback was given.

In this way, I'm also not prone on just dishing out negative feedback or criticism out of initial reaction or emotion, but now make sure to give out feedback in a manner in which both parties, myself and the other, can have it be a learning experience and we can build off of the feedback.

Thus, the only way feedback can become one without any sort of learning experience, is if I take it as negative and then shut that feedback completely down without trying to take away something from it. Even if the negative feedback turns out to be completely rubbish, it can still serve to teach you something about yourself.

121 sats \ 3 replies \ @freetx 7 Jun

So much of how you handle feedback is related to "how much of an expert do you perceive yourself to be"

For example. Even though I dabble in programming, and can hack my way around most typical jobs, I do not consider myself a programmer. Or to say it another way: I consider myself a fairly average/poor programmer.

Thus, when I receive criticism on code I've written, I'm generally thankful and I study what they've pointed out to make my code better.

Likewise, with Chess, I don't view myself as really that good....so corrections and feedback doesn't really affect me emotionally.

However, there may be other topics that I consider myself to be competent/proficient , where I may bristle at criticism.

Thats why its important to try to maintain a "beginners mind" about such things.

5 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 7 Jun

From your previous comments about Linux and hacker news and other technical matters, I assumed you are a software engineer!

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @freetx 7 Jun

For most of my professional life I was a sysadmin, hence the linux + a smattering of programming.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

Oh I love the phrase beginner’s mind n will be sure to remember it.

I think the challenge lies in that by volunteering to share, I m already presenting myself to be an expert (even though I’m still a novice at using Zoom haha), so I think balancing this dichotomy between expert persona n beginner’s mind will involve a lot of context switching

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

Thank you for such a detailed explanation of your psyche! Detaching our ego from our work can sometimes be difficult. However, as you said, if we see it as a trigger n frame the feedback as a learning experience, there is most likely something we can learn from it.

The last line about negative feedback being rubbish made me LOL

142 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 7 Jun

You handled it exactly how I was going to suggest.

I do think there's a useful distinction between "negative feedback" and "constructive criticism", although I'd say the later is a subset of the former. Feedback that suggests ways to improve is useful, whereas just being told your work sucks is not,

Dealing with negative feedback is a big part of academic life, because of the peer review process.

First, you have to determine if the criticism makes sense. If it doesn't, you try to think of ways to more clearly describe what you're doing, so that it won't come up again.
If the criticism is valid, you then have to decide if there's anything you can reasonably do to address it. If you can address it, then you do.
If you can't feasibly address the criticism, then you need to explain what the constraint is.
Ideally, you can also suggest how to avoid the constraint in subsequent work.

I think those steps generalize beyond dealing with peer review.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

Thanks for taking the time to detail the systematic, somewhat clinical process. I think the benefit of going through this is that it divorces the personal pronoun “I” from my work. My mind is primed into thinking about the extent to which the areas of improvement can be addressed

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 8 Jun

Our immediate hope is for a purely positive reaction, but the only way to really improve is for someone to notice that we have room for improvement.

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitcoinAbhi 7 Jun

If the criticism is valid, you then have to decide if there's anything you can reasonably do to address it. If you can address it, then you do

I totally agree with this point. But Many people already have a mindset that I can never be wrong. Like I know a person here. So there is no option of improvement for such a person

13 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 7 Jun

I think the key is that you make yourself address it whether or not it's valid. That way you can't just reject it as a way to avoid addressing it.

131 sats \ 6 replies \ @JesseJames 7 Jun

constructive criticism is valuable, the idiots that just venting one can usually ignore.... don'y pay no mind to that... It seems you got it right.... when you hear the same thing from 10 people, you know you need to address that. Classic bell-curve applies.

108 sats \ 3 replies \ @Bell_curve 7 Jun

Even three different people saying the same thing

Rule of 3 but ten also works

13 sats \ 2 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

I love how you weave concise commentary into the comments here xP

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 8 Jun

Haha

My friends and colleagues have teased me for my short messages

Brevity is the soul of wit

Let me elaborate on the rule of 3: one person says I have a nice watch. Second person says I have a nice watch. Maybe I have a nice watch but it’s coincidental. Third person compliments my watch. I definitely have a nice watch!

I have used this rule for assessing difficult colleagues and customers!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 8 Jun

"Brevity is the soul of wit" is a famous quote from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It means that the most intelligent and witty remarks are expressed concisely, using few words.[1][3]

The quote is spoken by the character Polonius, who ironically goes on a long-winded speech before finally stating that Hamlet is mad.[1][2][3] This irony highlights Polonius' lack of wit and self-awareness, as he fails to practice the very principle he preaches.[1][3]

Shakespeare likely used this quote to create humor and showcase Polonius as a hypocritical, rambling fool who tries to sound intelligent but lacks true wisdom.[1][3] The quote has become a popular proverb emphasizing the virtue of being succinct and avoiding unnecessary verbosity when expressing clever thoughts.[1][4][5]

Sources [1] 'Brevity is the Soul of Wit': Meaning and Origin - Interesting Literature https://interestingliterature.com/2023/04/brevity-is-the-soul-of-wit-meaning-origin/ [2] 'Brevity Is The Soul Of Wit' Meaning & Context Of Hamlet Quote https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/brevity-is-the-soul-of-wit/ [3] "Brevity is the soul of wit" Meaning - Poem Analysis https://poemanalysis.com/shakespeare-quotes/brevity-is-the-soul-of-wit/ [4] Act 2, Scene 2: Popup Note Index Item: "brevity is the soul of wit" https://myshakespeare.com/hamlet/act-2-scene-2-popup-note-index-item-brevity-the-soul-of-wit [5] brevity is the soul of wit - Wiktionary, the free dictionary https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brevity_is_the_soul_of_wit

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 8 Jun

You reminded me of the secretary or marriage problem. How many people do you interview to find the best candidate?

The answer is proportional to e or 2.71

Rule of e or 2.71

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

Thanks for your input. Indeed, when the same thing keeps being surfaced, it’s something that I ought to pay attention to

121 sats \ 2 replies \ @grayruby 7 Jun

Depends who it is coming from. If it is someone I know has good intentions for me then I appreciate and consider it even if I don't think they are correct. Maybe they don't have the full information or understand the situation deeply but if I know they have good intent it is worth it to see their perspective.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

I agree. It isn’t so much about the What but about the Why behind the feedback given

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 7 Jun

Credibility

52 sats \ 2 replies \ @Coinsreporter 7 Jun

Amazing!

You know what this is what I badly need right now!

I've been running a Cricket survivor pool and there's one stacker who has just got frustrated for no reason and had put one or two blames on me. That's negative feedback and now I'm reading how to deal with it.

11 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

Don’t let it get to you. Sleep, n tomorrow is another day

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 8 Jun

No, it was over within a few minutes and I had Avery good sleep after being so tired from a journey back to my home from the. Great Himalyas.

Would you like to join a SN meetup here in India next year?

42 sats \ 1 reply \ @BitcoinAbhi 7 Jun

In my opinion, if you do something believing that you are right, then there is no option left for improvement. As many people do

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

Without growth, there is no life

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @didiplaywell 8 Jun

After practice, I started being naturally quick at taking negative-constructive feedback due to always being able to drastically improve by doing so, plus gaining respect from whoever brought it up, who in turn kept on bringing constructive feedback, and so on. So the cycle self-stimulanted after kickoff in all senses. It's 100% win-win.

Other than that, negative feedback that says nothing can't but be discarded. Negative feedback on compromise solutions are unavoidable observations that I either try to clarify upfront or take note of if I hadn't detected them before.

20 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

That’s a good point about building a virtuous cycle in regard to receiving feedback 👍

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @southside263 8 Jun

Solution: Ego death.

Sounds like they just wanted more examples to learn better👍🏽

Cristicism is opportunity to improve and help others.

But you’ll never please everyone 😅

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

Lol imagine a Python squashing my ego to death haha

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @IamSINGLE 8 Jun

I don't give my ear to them. You can say I'm lazy or I ignore criticism. Yes, I do it just to avoid the nonsense that feedback brings. I put more stress on self improvement by self feedback.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 8 Jun

I’m intrigued. Do you always know what aspects to work on? How do you surface those blind spots?