Skip to main content

Feedback Thoughts

The two articles I read this week were Make Good Art: Neil Gaman's Advice on the Creative Life by Maria Popova and Rewire Your Self-Critical Brain by Joel Alemida. Popova's article was essentially a reiteration of Gaman's book which encorages reader to make good mistakes. Making mistakes means trying something you haven't done before, doing things and pushing yourself. I was really encouraged by his notion of turning mistakes into art. Everything we do has the potential to be turned into something wonderful and artistic if we can approach it with the correct mindset. Mistakes only mean that we are growing, the day we stop making mistakes is the day we stop trying anything new.

Popova's article addressed how to comeback from setbacks in the pursuit to achieve a goal. She practices what she calls REBS, reality based self-congratulations. Rather than seeing mistakes as a reason to be self-critical, the normal everyday habits should be considered small victories. By doing this, we can live in the present and find meaning in the smallest step. I personally find this more difficult to put into practice in my own life than the techniques suggested by Gaman. The articles address two opposite perspectives; one celebrates mistakes, one celebrates victories. I am generally a pessimistic and realistic person, and I would rather spend time celebrating my mistakes and making art out of them rather than congratulating myself for things I know I should be doing anyways.

I don't think anybody starts out accepting feeback or constructive criticism without feeling hurt on some level. After all, we write what we do because we believe it is good and want to share it with the world. But just as these two articles have their differences even though they address the same issue, every person interprets things differently and through their own lenses. It is up to the author not just to entertain them, but to leave the impact they intend to. If someone doesn't aggree with something I wrote, it is up to me to revise it and change their mind. I am looking forward to the feedback that will be given and received among my classmates this semester.

Image details: Feeback cats; source: Paula Nimigean


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Notes : Hans Christian Andersen, Part B

ANOTHER FAVORITE. The Little Mermaid is such a classic, and the original slaps. I guess I am old and beaten down now, but this version is my new favorite. The Disney version will always have a special place in my heart and be a part of my childhood, but his original version is so poetic. It is definitely more my style; it leaves an impression when the heroine doesn't get to live happily ever after, which is okay too! The world Hans Christian Andersen weaves is glorious . I could feel the mermaid's pain, urgency, and suffocating need to love and be loved. This is a story that will never get old, part of it due to how beautifully it is written. One of my favorite parts is when he describes the five older sisters and the things they experienced going to the surface for the first time. The scenes he paints makes me feel like I am experiencing those beautiful landscapes for the first time, too. Often time mermaids are fantasized, and it was interesting seeing it from the other per...

Reading Notes : Heroes, Part A

One thing I really enjoyed so far about this reading is how long the stories are. Instead of individual stories per chapter, each of these takes up about three chapter for one story. I felt like this really helped with character and plot development. Also, unlike the Alaskan stories I read last week, these stories were a bit more realistic, in the sense that they took place (mainly) on earth with real animals and real events in nature. Everyone loves a good hero story, and all of these were untraditional in their own way which made them interesting. One that I particularly liked centered around a bluejay, whose selfish actions were the reason he got sent on a journey to begin with. But upon his return, despite overcoming many obstacles, his life is pretty much the same before. It was interesting how their definition of hero is quite different from those we typically think of. For humans, it means dominating as the top species. For animals, it usually means just surviving.  At ti...

Reading Notes : Hans Christian Andersen, Part A

I was able to revisit some of my favorite stories from my childhood with this reading. The work of Hans Christian Andersen is so iconic and touching even now. It is really different reading these stories as an adult than as a child; what I took literally before is now so symbolic. I hadn't read the story of the little tin soldier in so long, and with it came a flood of memories. One thing I really love about his writings is how visual they are. For kids, it helps immerse them in the world he is trying to make and really experience the story with the character. For adults, there is something kind of sad and wistful about it. His creativity brings the situations to life in a very enjoyable way. One way he does this is through the flow of the story; it read extremely well and is easy to follow. The narrative is super smooth and beautiful to read, which is a big plus. There is nothing 'hard' or difficult to read about it, and it isn't tedious or repetitive either. Every s...