- It’s antagonistic, covertly hostile and sarcastic
- It usually comes faster than constructive criticism because the person giving it hasn’t really thought about anything before running off his fat mouth
- It is often personal or directed at a personality and not the project
- It is not results-oriented and makes you more confused than you were to begin with
- It takes the wind out of your sails and makes you wish the whole project were dead
- It leaves you with a feeling of mystery and confusion on how to move forward
- You sort of wonder if maybe you were just insulted
- Lots of adjectival opinions will be expressed
- You say stuff about yourself afterwards like, “I’m not good at taking criticism,” or “I need to lighten up a bit,” or “Nah…I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that.” (He did.)
- Instead of thank you, you feel like saying “I hope a Portuguese Man-of-War slides itself in your left eye socket. While you’re being hit by a bus. In hell.”
Take nasty criticism is also very neat and tidy:
1. Don’t
Seriously, I’m not being flippant. For a change.
If someone has nothing to offer the conversation but his bad attitude, excuse yourself. As I said earlier, we’ve all got a lot to do to achieve our goals. There’s no reason to waste our time.
This seems anti-social. “Everybody’s entitled to share their opinion,” is the politically correct thinking behind this. “You should give everyone a kind ear.”
But why? If you lived next to a factory that endlessly belched out carcinogenic smoke into your living room windows, you’d move. Why can’t you move if some jerk is belching out insults? It’s understood that people have the right to communicate. That means there must also be a right to not communicate if you don’t wish to.
And besides, there’s nothing as anti-social as trying to cut apart another person’s handiwork with the intention of making them feel awful.
Yes, everyone has the right to talk. And everyone has the right not to listen to a word of it.
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