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LM: #334: Instead of “feedback,” seek this
Creators shouldn’t seek feedback.
When the best man gets too close to the speaker, you get a howling noise. That’s feedback.
It’s also the result of a process called feedback: The output of a system becoming input.
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Unfortunately, feedback is also used to describe asking people what they think about your work, so you can turn that output into input.
Last week’s three-headed feedback monster showed us why feedback taken at face-value is confusing and contradictory.
It conjures an image of that famous Charlie Chaplin scene. Everyone’s opinion being shoved down your throat or slammed in your face.
Instead of feedback, seek reactions:
- Did your song make her dance, or cry?
- Did your joke make him laugh, or cringe?
- Did she “like” your post, or leave an angry comment?
Reactions are not directives of what you should or shouldn’t do with your work. Someone may hate what you’ve done, and it could mean you’re on to something. Someone may like it, and it means you’ve lost your way.
Just as a rock guitarist can manipulate what might otherwise be noise to play a riff that absolutely shreds, your job as a creator is to decide what reactions to listen to, or lean into, so you can create work that’s provocative and impactful.
Aphorism: “Always, the best bits I have in a special, the ones that are like, ‘That just kills every time,’ started with silence.” —Louis CK
Book: Free to Focus (Amazon) is Michael Hyatt’s productivity system for achieving more by doing less.
Best,
David
