Show HN: I made an alternative platform for professional profiles

Re:Show HN: I made an alternative platform for professional ... by systemvoltage on Monday January 04, 2021 @10:48PM (#25641834)

Back in 1960's, my dad worked as a draftsman. His work was impeccable. But once in a while, he got told, pretty harshly that this is a piece of shit. And he had to work 15 hours to fix a mistake. No, I am not talking about a typo which can be marked with a white marker. Hard-to-objectively-evaluate things like "Dimensions are just not as readable as they can be. You could arrange them this way, look. It's better." He told me to face criticisms, the harsher it is, the more passionate the criticizer is. Find out why they're passionately criticizing it.

I feel like criticisms on HN, Product Hunt, r/photography, r/design, etc. - we are too soft to not offend people.

I personally would want to be criticized as harshly as possible. I'd like to face reality in all its glory without drinking the soft-mannerism bs. If the design is shit, say it. If its great, praise it. Tell people why its great. Be honest why it sucks.

It's hard but if I am really interested in improving my skills, I don't want to be given lipservice. It is worse than not seeking feedback because it leads to self-delusion. It goes the other way too, don't be afraid to praise something passionately if you resonate with it and explain the reasons.

This is the society's mechanism for improvement and filtering out noise. If we don't do this, society becomes noisy and people who are really good at stuff are drowned in the noise.

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Re:Show HN: I made an alternative platform for professional ... by zimpenfish on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @04:53AM (#25643862)

> Find out why they're passionately criticizing it.

Sometimes this is just "because they're an arsehole" and the criticism is garbage.

> people who are really good at stuff are drowned in the noise

Or people who could be really good at stuff get disheartened by the harsh criticism and we as a society lose out.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: I made an alternative platform for professional ... by systemvoltage on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @09:49AM (#25646045)

> Sometimes this is just "because they're an arsehole" and the criticism is garbage

It’s pretty trivial to tell who is genuinely passionate and who is an asshole. Especially if you already know them personally.

> Or people who could be really good at stuff get disheartened by the harsh criticism and we as a society lose out.

Taking offense from an asshole, not being able to ignore them, all these traits are part of being successful. We can afford to lose a few people because they took offense to anything and everything. Maybe it’s different for minors and young adults. I’m addressing adults.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: I made an alternative platform for professional ... by krageon on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @05:36AM (#25644119)

You could just as easily say that people who respond well to unilateral and energetic feedback are not motivated and society loses out without harsh criticism. It's hard to quantify these things and that means every position is at least a little reasonable.

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Re:Show HN: I made an alternative platform for professional ... by systemvoltage on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @08:19PM (#25653655)

I'd want society to side with truth over falsehood when either are not easily quantifiable.

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Re:Show HN: I made an alternative platform for professional ... by cloverich on Tuesday January 05, 2021 @10:45AM (#25646678)

Its always to the advantage of the entrepreneur who can at once be passionate about their work and yet also take criticism in stride, turning it into the kind of useful feedback you describe. That being said, we all know constructive criticism will be likely uptaken, so its also on us (as a community) to foster it if we want the best outcomes all around. Though in general I agree, and have found this is the hardest part of both evaluating friend's works, and also getting friends to evaluate yours. I always feel the need to say "Please, don't be nice. I'm not looking for handouts. I don't want to spend time on this if no one is going to like it."

[ Parent | on HN ]