1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,260 I don't know if you had this experience of asking for feedback, but you know, I remember 2 00:00:05,260 --> 00:00:09,500 I used to have these experiences where I asked people for feedback on a paper or on some 3 00:00:09,500 --> 00:00:14,080 presentation or whatever it is I needed some help with. 4 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:17,000 And the response I would get is, oh yeah, that's good. 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:18,800 Oh yeah, I liked it. 6 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:21,000 Oh, that's nice. 7 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:25,400 Or I would get feedback like, you know, it was okay. 8 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:26,400 Whatever. 9 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:28,720 I don't know, I wasn't really feeling it. 10 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:34,080 And then sometimes I would get detailed feedback like, oh, I would change up this word here 11 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:35,880 and that word there. 12 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:37,800 And that's about it. 13 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:42,720 And then I would be left there thinking, man, I mean, I'm grateful that you took a look 14 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:46,820 and then gave me feedback, but I'm not sure what to do with this feedback. 15 00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:54,980 I'm not sure what it helps me to change, at least figure out what to do going forward. 16 00:00:54,980 --> 00:00:57,440 So let's talk about this. 17 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:16,360 What does it look like to get useful feedback? 18 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:17,520 You know what this is. 19 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,240 This is The Pop Out and I'm your host Albert Shin. 20 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,440 And today I wanted to talk about how to actually garner useful feedback, right? 21 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:31,640 So I usually find that when you ask people for feedback, they don't really know exactly 22 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:38,800 what to say unless they had some sort of training or experience in how to give quality feedback. 23 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:43,480 So one of the things I've often done with students is to work on how they, if they're 24 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:48,120 looking for feedback from others, how they can actually elicit feedback that is going 25 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:50,480 to be useful for them, right? 26 00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:55,520 And by useful, what I mean is whether good or bad, whether positive or not, right, the 27 00:01:55,520 --> 00:02:00,980 feedback helps them generate the right ideas for the kind of changes that they would like 28 00:02:00,980 --> 00:02:05,800 to make or the things that they would like to keep in whatever they're asking feedback 29 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:07,920 on, right? 30 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:16,520 So I'm going to use specifically written works, right, like papers as an example in this episode. 31 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:20,480 But I want you to start thinking like this applies to just basically anything that you 32 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:24,560 might be looking to get some help on, right? 33 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,560 So what does useful feedback look like? 34 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:32,760 All right, so if we kind of pan out and then look at the process as a whole, right, what 35 00:02:32,760 --> 00:02:34,480 is the whole purpose of a feedback? 36 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:39,240 Well, the feedback you get is supposed to be information that you could then use to 37 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:42,160 improve whatever it is that you're trying to improve. 38 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,280 In this case, let's say a paper you wrote for class, okay? 39 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,200 You're trying to make improvements on it, you're trying to make it better in some ways, 40 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:49,200 okay? 41 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:54,320 So a feedback is helpful if it serves that purpose and the feedback is not helpful if 42 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:58,320 it doesn't actually help make those changes, okay? 43 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:00,040 So this is the bigger picture, right? 44 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,660 So then what are you really looking for when you're asking for feedback? 45 00:03:03,660 --> 00:03:05,720 You're not looking for affirmation, right? 46 00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:09,860 Now you might be, it was like a personal need yourself, you might need somebody to affirm 47 00:03:09,860 --> 00:03:13,320 you so that you feel a little more confident about what you produce, right? 48 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:17,800 But when you're asking for feedback, the actual point of asking for feedback is not so much 49 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:25,040 to affirm your sense of self, but rather is to get real insight from somebody else for 50 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:31,720 things that you might not see yourself and things, factors, right, changes, notice like 51 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:39,640 little details about your work that with the right kind of changes will actually help to 52 00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:44,080 make it a better version than what it was, right? 53 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:49,160 So if that's what you're really looking for, right, if you're not just looking for affirmation, 54 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:54,780 but you're actually looking to get real useful feedback, you know, that should guide the 55 00:03:54,780 --> 00:03:59,660 kind of questions that you ask because, you know, when you leave somebody with just give 56 00:03:59,660 --> 00:04:04,580 me feedback, right, then depending on the person, they might not necessarily know what 57 00:04:04,580 --> 00:04:06,720 to do exactly, right? 58 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:08,880 This is actually a struggle for teachers as well, right? 59 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:13,600 Like, I mean, I do this all the time with students ask me for feedback, right? 60 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:19,520 I usually follow up and I've gotten to the habit of trying to do so is that ask them, 61 00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:23,280 right, what kind of feedback are you looking for, right? 62 00:04:23,280 --> 00:04:27,120 Or if it's something where in the context of a particular class, I kind of have an idea 63 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:28,120 of what they're looking for, right? 64 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:32,160 If it's in the context of grades or why they got a particular grade, then I could elaborate 65 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:37,560 on the things that impacted their grade on a particular paper, okay? 66 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:42,280 But without those context clues or without my prompting and asking for specification 67 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:46,200 on what kind of feedback they're looking for, a lot of times when you just throw it out 68 00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,840 there, like, hey, give me some feedback, people don't really know how to respond. 69 00:04:49,840 --> 00:04:51,560 People really don't know how to respond. 70 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:56,220 They know to either say good, bad, okay, right? 71 00:04:56,220 --> 00:05:00,520 They might give some vague description of stuff that they noticed, okay? 72 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:03,800 But not everyone is trained to give good feedback. 73 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:08,760 And so you're going to have to prompt them into giving you some useful feedback here, 74 00:05:08,760 --> 00:05:09,760 okay? 75 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:14,560 So what are the kinds of things that will be helpful for you to ask when you are asking 76 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:15,560 for feedback? 77 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,080 Well, the key here is going to be this. 78 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:24,120 You need to be specific about the kinds of elements that you want feedback on. 79 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:27,400 Let me explain exactly what that means, right? 80 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:31,480 So let's say you hand them a paper for a class, okay? 81 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:36,520 Let's say it's an English class, maybe you're analyzing some poem or something, right? 82 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:37,880 There are several things you could ask, right? 83 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:43,960 So one is you might want to know whether or not what you say actually is coherent, right? 84 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,080 Does it make sense, right? 85 00:05:46,080 --> 00:05:52,120 Am I all over the place and is what I'm describing or explaining just extremely confusing and 86 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:53,920 muddy, okay? 87 00:05:53,920 --> 00:06:00,080 One way you could elicit feedback on that particular element is to ask somebody, hey, 88 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:05,040 as you're giving me feedback, I want you to try to focus on one particular thing here, 89 00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:06,040 right? 90 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:11,800 Which is, is what I'm writing here, does it actually make sense to you, right? 91 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,920 And to make sure that it makes sense to you, would you be able to summarize what I said 92 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:22,520 in your own words so that I can see that it actually made sense to you, right? 93 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:23,920 This comes from like active listening, right? 94 00:06:23,920 --> 00:06:27,160 So if you know anything about what it means to be an active listener, right? 95 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:31,040 When you're actively listening, you're not just passively like hearing things going into 96 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:36,000 your ear, rather you're taking in that information, you're processing it, and you're making sense 97 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:37,000 of it. 98 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:41,920 And you should be, if you're actively listening well, you should be able to regurgitate in 99 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:43,000 your own words, right? 100 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:46,760 Not just like robotically repeat what the other person said, but be able to explain 101 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:49,920 in your own words what the other person was saying, right? 102 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:55,280 So it's the same idea here, but in with regards to writing then, you would then ask like, 103 00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:58,560 hey, did this what I wrote here, did it make sense to you, right? 104 00:06:58,560 --> 00:07:02,720 Just to make sure that it made sense to you, make sure that what I wanted to express is 105 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,140 what the reader actually got, right? 106 00:07:06,140 --> 00:07:10,600 Can you actually tell me what you think I was saying in this particular paper just so 107 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:12,080 I can know, right? 108 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:13,800 OK, so notice something here. 109 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:20,040 The question you ask gives the reader an idea of what kind of feedback to give you, and 110 00:07:20,040 --> 00:07:23,760 they have a clear sense of what they should be looking for, what you're curious about 111 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:28,880 in terms of the kind of feedback that you're wanting to receive. 112 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:33,560 And notice that when you prompt somebody in this way, the response that they'll give you 113 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:35,500 is something that you can definitely use, right? 114 00:07:35,500 --> 00:07:40,720 For instance, if you find out like, hey, they had the sense that you were saying one thing, 115 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:44,960 but that's not what you were trying to convey, then you know in the least that there's some 116 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:46,000 discrepancy, right? 117 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:51,600 There's some discrepancy in what you wrote versus what the reader is reading, right? 118 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,360 Which means there's some issue here in the communication, right? 119 00:07:55,360 --> 00:08:00,520 Either you wrote something in a confusing way or misleading way, or the way that is 120 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,980 written is a little bit confusing, and so the readers could interpret it in several 121 00:08:03,980 --> 00:08:05,480 different ways, right? 122 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:08,480 There's some issue that is leading to this discrepancy, right? 123 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,160 So that helps you understand, right? 124 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:16,160 Furthermore, if you know what it is that they got wrong about what you're trying to convey, 125 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:20,120 you know exactly where in the writing to go to make those corrections, right? 126 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:21,840 Because it's whatever it is that they got wrong, right? 127 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:26,160 So imagine they were trying to repeat back to you what they thought you were saying. 128 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,360 They got the first half of the paper, right, spot on, right? 129 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:32,160 Then you know the first half of the paper looks good, right? 130 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:33,920 At least it makes sense. 131 00:08:33,920 --> 00:08:38,080 Second half, oh man, maybe they made a bunch of mistakes in the second half of that paper, 132 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:39,080 right? 133 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:41,820 Then you know that the second half of the paper needs work, right? 134 00:08:41,820 --> 00:08:44,720 This helps you in the feedback you receive, right? 135 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:49,200 It really helps you to focus your attention on specific things so that you're not just 136 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,920 looking through the paper wondering what it is that you need to change. 137 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:54,500 You know exactly what you need to change. 138 00:08:54,500 --> 00:08:57,280 You need to change the parts where it was confusing. 139 00:08:57,280 --> 00:09:00,800 You need to change the parts where the writing was misleading, right? 140 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:06,800 Or where the logic of your explanation just started to go off the rails, right? 141 00:09:06,800 --> 00:09:11,000 You know exactly where to focus your attention, what to change, okay? 142 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:12,700 So notice something here, right? 143 00:09:12,700 --> 00:09:16,360 When you ask somebody for a general, like, can you give me feedback, you don't know what 144 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:17,600 you're going to get in return. 145 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:23,760 Whereas if you ask the more specific question, right, hey, can you at least try to tell me 146 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:29,300 if this whole essay, right, the point I'm trying to make, does it make sense, right? 147 00:09:29,300 --> 00:09:34,440 Can you tell me that it actually makes sense to the reader by regurgitating it, right, 148 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:39,480 in your own words so that I know that the message is getting through, right? 149 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:43,680 Then you know exactly where your explanations might be going off the rails so you know exactly 150 00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:48,720 where to focus your attention and what kind of parts of your explanation you need to change, 151 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:49,720 okay? 152 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:51,200 All right. 153 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:56,000 Secondly, you might want to also ask questions about, and these are just kind of big pictures, 154 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:02,200 but you might also want to ask questions about the general overall, let's say it's an argumentative 155 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:05,520 essay, like does the argument sound convincing? 156 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:08,960 Or does my explanation, is it convincing, right? 157 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,840 And this actually goes to something a little different than just doesn't make sense, right? 158 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:17,400 That argument could make sense, but what you're really asking is, is this a good argument 159 00:10:17,400 --> 00:10:18,400 that I'm making? 160 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:22,840 Is this one that's convincing because I am giving sufficient evidence in support of whatever 161 00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:25,560 idea I'm presenting, okay? 162 00:10:25,560 --> 00:10:30,520 Or am I giving sufficient detail in explaining some sort of concept I'm trying to explain, 163 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:31,520 right? 164 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:35,560 Whatever it is you're doing in that paper, right, you want to also check to make sure 165 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:39,520 that the reasoning that you're giving and the evidence you're giving, the support you're 166 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:44,040 giving, the examples you're using, that those things actually do the job that you want it 167 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:45,140 to do. 168 00:10:45,140 --> 00:10:46,280 Whether or not it makes sense, right? 169 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:51,320 It could make sense, but you might be looking for feedback specifically on whether it's 170 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:53,880 a well formulated argument, okay? 171 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:55,520 So then how do you elicit feedback like that? 172 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:59,480 Well, one thing you can do is just ask them, like, do you think it's a good argument? 173 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:07,480 But I think the more detailed question here is going to be helpful, which is, how convinced 174 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:12,360 are you with this argument, let's say on a scale of one to 10, right? 175 00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:18,840 And furthermore, do you think there are ways to improve the argument, right? 176 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:24,880 What you're doing by asking questions like this is eliciting this in the feedback giver, 177 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:25,880 right? 178 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:31,880 The person who's reading in their head, like, hmm, maybe it is a good argument, but what's 179 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:38,640 more important is the details of, you know, what about the argument makes it a weak argument 180 00:11:38,640 --> 00:11:44,000 and what kinds of things can be added to the argument to make it a stronger argument, okay? 181 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:49,920 So what you're implanting into that reader's head is, hey, as you're reading this, I'm 182 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:55,600 trying to prime you to focus your attention on the quality of the argument, okay? 183 00:11:55,600 --> 00:12:00,600 And not just focus on the quality of the argument and then give me a thumbs up or thumbs down, 184 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:06,560 but I'm prompting you to give me more specifics about, A, what goes wrong in the argument 185 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:09,020 and B, your own suggestions, right? 186 00:12:09,020 --> 00:12:13,640 You're kind of eliciting that actual feedback that you can use, right? 187 00:12:13,640 --> 00:12:19,000 Where they say, hey, actually, I think that this sort of example is not the best. 188 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:21,640 Maybe you could replace it with another example like this. 189 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:25,360 And then they're the ones who give you these ideas, right? 190 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:27,360 So it does a couple of things, right? 191 00:12:27,360 --> 00:12:32,640 Again, it gets down to the nitty gritty, it gets down to the specifics of, hey, you know, 192 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:36,120 like this particular part of the argument is what needs work. 193 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:38,000 That particular part of the argument is what needs work. 194 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,500 Oh, this part of the argument might be good, but it could use some improvements, right? 195 00:12:41,500 --> 00:12:45,840 So you're getting the specifics here that we were seeking, right, the last time around. 196 00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:50,960 But there's one additional thing you're getting, which is you're getting them to help you by 197 00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:55,200 providing you with examples and suggestions, okay? 198 00:12:55,200 --> 00:13:00,080 You're asking them to at least prompt ideas, not saying that you're necessarily going to 199 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:06,300 use them, but at least to generate some ideas of what it would look like for this to be 200 00:13:06,300 --> 00:13:10,420 a better argument or a better explanation, right? 201 00:13:10,420 --> 00:13:13,320 What would enhance the quality of this paper? 202 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:14,320 Okay. 203 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:19,400 And by their giving you feedback, you get a better sense of what it is that they're 204 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:20,400 seeing. 205 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:27,160 But more importantly, you're getting the catalyst for your generating ideas for how you might 206 00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:31,220 want to go about changing your work, okay? 207 00:13:31,220 --> 00:13:35,120 So you really want to kind of, again, notice there's a commonality in these questions, 208 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:36,120 right? 209 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:38,420 You're not asking general vague questions. 210 00:13:38,420 --> 00:13:43,960 You're asking much more targeted questions about specific types of feedback you're trying 211 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:45,120 to receive. 212 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:50,780 For one, you're trying to get feedback on the overall, right, does the explanation actually 213 00:13:50,780 --> 00:13:54,040 make sense or is what I'm saying doesn't make sense, okay? 214 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:55,140 Is it confusing? 215 00:13:55,140 --> 00:13:57,200 Is it misleading, right? 216 00:13:57,200 --> 00:14:03,920 And also, you're asking them like, hey, what's the quality of the content that I'm presenting? 217 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:11,560 And you're also listening feedback on exactly how it may or may not be a better version 218 00:14:11,560 --> 00:14:12,940 than it is right now, right? 219 00:14:12,940 --> 00:14:17,720 So you're looking for all of those details in trying to figure out what to work on and 220 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:20,240 how to work on it. 221 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:21,240 Got this, right? 222 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,920 I think one of the things that students often ask for when they're looking for feedback 223 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:32,360 is they go straight to the nitty gritty details of, you know, what is it, like the grammar 224 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,520 of it all and the diction. 225 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:39,300 You know, those things, if you're thinking about the editing phase of any paper, right, 226 00:14:39,300 --> 00:14:41,160 that comes way at the end, right? 227 00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:43,480 That's a pretty straightforward fix. 228 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:46,680 That's pretty easy to, that kind of editing is actually fairly easy. 229 00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:49,960 That kind of feedback is, you could get a lot of feedback, right? 230 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:55,480 But also, that kind of feedback is honestly the most shallow kind of feedback, right? 231 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,000 That's like, you know, tying, crossing your t's and dotting your i's. 232 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:00,320 That's really what it's doing. 233 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:04,440 But before you even get there, you need to focus on the actual content of your work, 234 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:05,440 right? 235 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:06,440 You need to focus on the thing. 236 00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:09,520 And again, it depends on the, it depends on exactly what the work is, right? 237 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:13,840 If it's a presentation, you're going to ask about specifics that impact the quality of 238 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:14,960 a presentation, right? 239 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:20,740 Things like timing or your voice level or, right, now you could go down a list, right? 240 00:15:20,740 --> 00:15:23,840 What constitutes a good whatever it is you're doing, right? 241 00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:30,220 A good speech, a good poem, a good analysis, a good research paper, a good whatever it 242 00:15:30,220 --> 00:15:32,160 is you're doing, right? 243 00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:36,720 And you could go down the list of those qualities and then get the person who's giving you feedback 244 00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:41,400 to focus in on each of those qualities, right? 245 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:44,080 One of the things you can do, I mean, this is going to be a little strange, but you could 246 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:46,440 give them a set of criteria of things to look for, right? 247 00:15:46,440 --> 00:15:47,660 That's one thing you could do. 248 00:15:47,660 --> 00:15:52,560 But I usually find that it's just, it's good enough to ask a few fairly straightforward 249 00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:56,520 questions about what you want to focus your attention on, okay? 250 00:15:56,520 --> 00:16:00,760 Now I recommend that you do this in phases. 251 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:05,500 And the reason I ask, I say that you should do it in phases is that if, and this happens 252 00:16:05,500 --> 00:16:08,940 to me when I'm giving feedback to students, if I'm trying to focus on everything that 253 00:16:08,940 --> 00:16:11,680 I could give feedback on, it's just overwhelming. 254 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:13,040 It's too much, right? 255 00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:15,120 It's too much. 256 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:19,720 And then so what I end up doing is I end up splitting my attention or I spend a lot of 257 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:20,720 time on the feedback. 258 00:16:20,720 --> 00:16:23,580 Like I go through it like three, four times and it's exhausting, right? 259 00:16:23,580 --> 00:16:27,440 You don't want to put that kind of work on somebody who's trying to help you out, right? 260 00:16:27,440 --> 00:16:31,000 So my recommendation is actually just to do it in phases or maybe you could spread out 261 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,280 the work to different people, okay? 262 00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:38,000 But the first couple of questions that I suggested you, sets of questions that I suggested you 263 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:43,560 ask, notice something about those two is that it's not just eliciting those detailed feedback, 264 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:52,720 but it's also questions about the overall feel, content, direction, organization of 265 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:55,840 the paper, not the nitty gritty, right? 266 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:57,580 And there's a reason for it, right? 267 00:16:57,580 --> 00:17:01,520 In the process of editing, like I said, the details come in last. 268 00:17:01,520 --> 00:17:05,800 The way you want to actually approach the feedback process is you want to start with 269 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:07,560 the more general feedback. 270 00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:09,440 You want to start with the big picture. 271 00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:12,560 And so you want to ask about the big picture first. 272 00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:13,820 Does it make sense? 273 00:17:13,820 --> 00:17:15,400 Is the argument a good one? 274 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:17,260 Can the argument be better, right? 275 00:17:17,260 --> 00:17:19,560 Are there things that I should be adding to it? 276 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:20,940 What might that look like? 277 00:17:20,940 --> 00:17:24,600 What is missing from this explanation, right? 278 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:28,000 What parts would you like a deeper explanation on, right? 279 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,080 What parts would have been more helpful to give more evidence on, right? 280 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:35,800 Like those are the general questions you want to focus on in the first one or two read throughs, 281 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:39,400 I would say, at least the first two, okay? 282 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:45,480 And then afterwards, you could get into more detailed questions about basic structure, 283 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:49,020 about diction, about grammar, right? 284 00:17:49,020 --> 00:17:50,020 Those factors, right? 285 00:17:50,020 --> 00:17:52,240 Those factors could come in afterwards, right? 286 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,040 That includes, for instance, things like footnotes, right? 287 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:56,500 Like if you have to write footnotes or citations, right? 288 00:17:56,500 --> 00:17:57,500 Is the citation correct? 289 00:17:57,500 --> 00:17:58,500 Can you check those? 290 00:17:58,500 --> 00:18:00,400 Do that at the very end, okay? 291 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:07,720 What matters first is getting the actual content, the deeper content, to get that correct. 292 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:11,520 And then you could tinker with the bells and whistles, right? 293 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,720 That's what the grammar and all that would essentially be, okay? 294 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,880 By the way, another important question to ask is another, so I'm thinking about general 295 00:18:18,880 --> 00:18:19,880 big picture questions. 296 00:18:19,880 --> 00:18:23,980 Like I said, it depends on exactly what you're asking for feedback on, right? 297 00:18:23,980 --> 00:18:26,600 But especially for things like papers, right? 298 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,420 One of the things that are really helpful to kind of ask about in the first several 299 00:18:30,420 --> 00:18:31,800 phases is a transition. 300 00:18:31,800 --> 00:18:36,140 And this kind of goes to, does the argument actually make sense, right? 301 00:18:36,140 --> 00:18:38,400 Or does the explanation make sense, right? 302 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:42,640 You want the transitions, you want them to focus in on transitions because transitions 303 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:47,980 often highlight how it is that you're moving from one thought to another. 304 00:18:47,980 --> 00:18:49,600 That's essentially what a transition is, right? 305 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:52,240 It's not necessarily paragraphs, right? 306 00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:56,240 They might give you the feedback of breaking these ideas up into smaller paragraphs. 307 00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:00,280 But again, it's not about the grammar of it all, right? 308 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:04,040 Or rather like just following some set of rules about how to write a paper. 309 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:10,880 But rather, it's that the breaking up into paragraphs in a meaningful way is just a reflection 310 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:13,600 of something about the transition that's not making sense, right? 311 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:19,580 So another question that could be really helpful in asking is, does it make sense how I move 312 00:19:19,580 --> 00:19:21,360 from one idea to another? 313 00:19:21,360 --> 00:19:22,360 Can you identify, right? 314 00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:24,860 Again, the specific questions here are really helpful. 315 00:19:24,860 --> 00:19:28,760 Can you identify for me where you think these transitions are happening? 316 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,880 And what you're looking for here, again, is any discrepancy between what you're wanting 317 00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:38,860 to communicate and what the reader actually is identifying for themselves. 318 00:19:38,860 --> 00:19:43,200 And if there's a discrepancy, that means there's a problem in the communication here, right? 319 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:47,240 That means that there could be something you could do in your writing to improve the way 320 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:50,720 you convey what you're trying to convey, okay? 321 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:53,960 So start with the big picture, okay? 322 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,240 Then ask in rounds later, right? 323 00:19:56,240 --> 00:20:00,280 So again, this is why it's helpful to spread out the work because you don't put the burden 324 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:01,480 on one person. 325 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,600 I personally love to go to different people for different things, right? 326 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:07,360 I might have some people who are very good about details. 327 00:20:07,360 --> 00:20:12,520 I could go to them for things like grammar, spelling errors, things like that, right? 328 00:20:12,520 --> 00:20:14,720 And then I have other friends who are big picture thinkers, right? 329 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:17,800 If you're coming to me for feedback, okay, I am terrible with details. 330 00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:19,080 I'll be honest with you, right? 331 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:23,200 I'll probably miss a bunch of minor errors here and there when it comes to some of the 332 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:26,240 details or spelling or punctuation, right? 333 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:30,520 So I am not the best person to go to for that, but I can definitely, I feel confident when 334 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:36,440 it comes to overall big picture transition, the nitty-gritty of the argument and whether 335 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:41,520 or not the argument actually is a good one, whether it's well supported, right? 336 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,880 Those kinds of questions I do well at in terms of giving feedback. 337 00:20:44,880 --> 00:20:48,800 So oftentimes what I would tell students is, hey, you could come for me for this, but then 338 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,200 there's people at the writing center or these other places you could go where you could 339 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:54,480 get better help when it comes to other aspects. 340 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:55,480 You could do the same thing. 341 00:20:55,480 --> 00:21:00,680 You could utilize that technique and what that allows for you to do is to, because you 342 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:04,960 turn different people for different things, it unburdens each person from trying to do 343 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,760 too much and so they're more likely to help you out again in the future, right? 344 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:11,080 It's not asking too much of them, okay? 345 00:21:11,080 --> 00:21:13,040 All right, does this all make sense? 346 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:18,200 All right, the second thing I want to, the next thing I want to point out is this, okay? 347 00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:23,040 When you're asking for feedback, you need to go to more than one person, okay? 348 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:26,800 And this is not just because of what I just said, which is that different people are better 349 00:21:26,800 --> 00:21:28,280 at certain things, right? 350 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:34,200 But rather, there are many aspects of writing where it helps you to see insight from numerous 351 00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:39,800 different people with different perspectives and different way of reading to make sure 352 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:45,560 that you're hitting your core audience in a way that makes sense for the entire audience. 353 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:49,240 Okay, so let me break it down and explain exactly what that means, okay? 354 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:55,120 You might have a writing style that appeals to one particular type of person, okay? 355 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:59,420 But here's the thing, if you're writing for an audience where it's meant to be for a broader 356 00:21:59,420 --> 00:22:03,760 audience where it's just not that target demographic, then you want to make sure that your writing 357 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,280 speaks to the range of different people, right? 358 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:13,360 What that means is that as you seek feedback, you want to keep the audience you have in 359 00:22:13,360 --> 00:22:18,440 mind and then garner feedback from that particular audience, right? 360 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:19,440 And there's going to be a range of them. 361 00:22:19,440 --> 00:22:22,920 There's going to be a range of people that you might want to speak to, people who are 362 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:28,760 different in the way that they read and interpret and process writing, okay? 363 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:33,240 And doing so allows you to get the insight from multiple directions so that when you 364 00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:37,760 make those changes and then you go back to them for another read through, if it's like 365 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:43,000 thumbs up from all of them, then you know that you have hit your target demographic. 366 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:48,240 You have hit the range of people that you want the essay to speak to, okay? 367 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:52,340 Now this is kind of hard sometimes, especially in high school, right? 368 00:22:52,340 --> 00:22:55,360 Because in high school, you might have one particular teacher that you're writing the 369 00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:59,820 particular paper for and they might be very particular in their own way. 370 00:22:59,820 --> 00:23:05,800 But I think the mark of a good writer is practicing this ability to speak to a larger audience 371 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:12,740 because it will give you the kind of flexibility and the ability to kind of navigate the range 372 00:23:12,740 --> 00:23:17,240 of different people that might read the same work in different ways, okay? 373 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:21,520 One of the things that happens, especially in college, and I get this a lot from students, 374 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:25,200 is, hey, I was told to write in one way from a high school teacher. 375 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:29,000 I was told to write a different way from this other college professor and now you're telling 376 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,320 me to write in a different way, right? 377 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,760 And then I always tell them the same thing, which is, look, the mark of a good writer 378 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:39,160 is knowing how to write to the audience, right? 379 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:43,180 So you need to know who your target audience is. 380 00:23:43,180 --> 00:23:47,280 And it might be the particular instructor at your particular school, but if that's your 381 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:52,820 writing ability, it's limited to that particular audience, then you're going to have a lot 382 00:23:52,820 --> 00:23:57,520 of trouble writing when there's a different teacher that has a different set of expectations, 383 00:23:57,520 --> 00:23:58,520 right? 384 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:03,480 So I always tell students, learn to be flexible because that's really the mark of a good writer. 385 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:09,500 You want to learn how to write for different purposes, for different audiences, right? 386 00:24:09,500 --> 00:24:15,760 You want to know how to write for a particular teacher, right, if that's what matters. 387 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:20,560 But if you're, let's say, writing a speech for the high school audience at the graduation, 388 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:23,360 right, then again, that's your target audience. 389 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:26,400 You better make sure you're not speaking to just like five of those students, right? 390 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:32,000 You want to make sure you're speaking to the range of different personalities and backgrounds 391 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:36,560 and all the different variations that exist in a student body, right? 392 00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:37,760 And it's going to be the same thing. 393 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:41,680 When you get to college, depending on the subject, there are certain set norms within 394 00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:43,080 different subjects. 395 00:24:43,080 --> 00:24:46,280 So you're going to have to write differently for different audiences. 396 00:24:46,280 --> 00:24:47,280 And that's the expectation. 397 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:49,760 That's what you should be doing as a good writer, right? 398 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:51,720 You shouldn't be writing the same way every single time. 399 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:53,040 That's ridiculous, right? 400 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:58,200 If I'm writing for a newspaper article where I'm giving my opinion on something, I'm going 401 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:02,120 to write differently than if I'm writing a research paper that I'm trying to send out 402 00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:03,240 for publication. 403 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:07,000 And that's going to be different from if I'm trying to write a book for a New York Times 404 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:08,240 bestseller, right? 405 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:13,000 The writing style should change because the audiences are very different in those different 406 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:14,200 works, right? 407 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:19,800 And then so, you know, you want to make sure that you don't just speak to a narrow set 408 00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:21,240 of readers. 409 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:25,240 You want to make sure that your writing speaks to the entirety of the audience you have in 410 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:26,240 mind, right? 411 00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,720 Now, you might have your own personal writing flair, right, the way that you write that's 412 00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:33,520 distinct from the way that the other people write. 413 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:38,880 But at the same time, right, you want to try to check to make sure that you're not just 414 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:43,440 speaking to a narrow subset of people and rather hitting the entirety of the target 415 00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:45,400 audience, okay? 416 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:50,680 So it's going to be helpful to get feedback again from multiple people, okay, from multiple 417 00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:51,680 people. 418 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:56,240 And that's on top of that, you know, no one person is perfect, so, you know, every person 419 00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,200 will provide a different kind of insight, right? 420 00:25:58,200 --> 00:25:59,680 We'll pick up on something different. 421 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,640 Okay, here's the last thing. 422 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:03,400 Here's the last thing. 423 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,420 I can't stress this enough, okay? 424 00:26:06,420 --> 00:26:14,600 The feedback that you receive, okay, if it's not useful, it is your job to ask questions 425 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:18,120 to elicit better feedback, okay? 426 00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:19,120 It is your job. 427 00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:21,660 It's nobody else's job, okay? 428 00:26:21,660 --> 00:26:25,040 Which means, let's say you went to a bunch of different people now, you got a bunch of 429 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,920 feedback, and then the couple of feedbacks you got were, right, it was just like smiley 430 00:26:28,920 --> 00:26:31,760 face or something in one space, right, in some area, right, and you're like, I don't 431 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:33,180 know what it means, okay? 432 00:26:33,180 --> 00:26:36,340 If you don't know what it means, you're the one asking other people for help, right? 433 00:26:36,340 --> 00:26:40,320 You need to be the one to follow up and be like, hey, you put a smiley face here, I'm 434 00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:45,680 guessing it's a positive response from you, can you point out exactly what it is that 435 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:48,520 is making you smile, right? 436 00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,000 What is it that you are reacting to, okay? 437 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,160 Or you can be more specific and be like, can you underline the sentence, right, or highlight 438 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,200 it, okay? 439 00:26:56,200 --> 00:27:02,640 You know, can you explain to me, you know, right, if it's something I should keep, for 440 00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:03,640 instance, okay? 441 00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:06,600 A lot of people don't know this, but you know, you're looking for a range of feedback. 442 00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:11,240 Like, I think one of the questions that you can ask that is really helpful is, you know, 443 00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:15,040 even if you wrote a really good quality paper and it's in like the third draft and it's 444 00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:20,920 looking fairly polished, right, you could always ask the question, right, which is, what part 445 00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,520 of my writing do you really like, right? 446 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:28,120 And can you specify what that is, like underline it, highlight it, right? 447 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:30,960 And then can you tell me what you like about it, okay? 448 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:32,360 This does a couple of things, right? 449 00:27:32,360 --> 00:27:36,160 One, you're not receiving only the feedback of things that you should change, right? 450 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:40,620 But rather, you're getting good information, you're getting information about the aspects 451 00:27:40,620 --> 00:27:43,960 of your writing that you should keep, right? 452 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,880 You could even ask them, like, should I keep it the way it is or should I change this, 453 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:48,880 right? 454 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:50,200 Sometimes the feedback will be, no, no, no, don't change it. 455 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:51,200 This is perfect. 456 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:52,200 I like the way it is. 457 00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:55,160 I like, and then they'll explain to you exactly what they like about it. 458 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:56,480 I like the humor you use here. 459 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,640 I like the way that you phrase this idea. 460 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:01,480 I like the clarity in what you wrote, okay? 461 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:05,080 That kind of feedback is super duper helpful because here's one of the things that also 462 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:07,520 happens during, you know, feedback time, right? 463 00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:10,960 You get all this feedback and then you know what you need to change, but all the stuff 464 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,120 that they didn't comment on, you don't know what to do with, like, should I change this? 465 00:28:14,120 --> 00:28:15,760 Should I leave it alone, right? 466 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:17,440 You're not sure what to do with it. 467 00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:21,440 Having some assurance about what they liked and what they thought you should keep or what 468 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,520 they thought you did well, it gives you two things, right? 469 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,600 One, it tells you what to keep, but it also tells you here's what they're picking up 470 00:28:28,600 --> 00:28:30,480 on that I do well. 471 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,200 And in essence, here's the thing that I should do more of, right? 472 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:35,440 That's really what they're telling you, right? 473 00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:40,200 If they're giving you feedback on things that you did well, you want to try to, you know, 474 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,480 make sure that you do that again and again and again, right? 475 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:44,920 You want to know, right? 476 00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:49,200 If I do this well, then oh yeah, you're going to be motivated to try to do it some more, 477 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:50,200 okay? 478 00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:53,840 Because you're realizing that it's hitting the right chords, okay? 479 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:58,280 So it's really helpful to get that kind of feedback, but sometimes you might have to 480 00:28:58,280 --> 00:28:59,840 ask the deeper question. 481 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,040 You might have to ask the more, you know, question of specificity. 482 00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:04,760 You might have to follow up with people. 483 00:29:04,760 --> 00:29:07,200 And this is something I think often people don't like to do, right? 484 00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:09,760 It feel like you're hassling them. 485 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,880 You feel like, right, all these, I will tell you this, right? 486 00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:15,600 Psychologically speaking, this is something we learned about people. 487 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:16,700 People like to be helpful. 488 00:29:16,700 --> 00:29:18,600 People like to be useful, okay? 489 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:23,320 Asking other people for help brings them more joy than you think, okay? 490 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,680 So I think you should not be afraid to ask for help. 491 00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:27,880 It's not a knock on you. 492 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,320 It doesn't mean you're incapable or anything like that. 493 00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:32,360 But rather, just think of it like this. 494 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:34,400 I'm giving a gift to the other person, right? 495 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,280 People tend to want to be helpful. 496 00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,080 And if you ask them for help, they feel helpful. 497 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:40,080 They feel useful. 498 00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:43,200 It brings joy to their life for being able to have helped you in this way. 499 00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:48,040 So feel free to go up to them afterwards and be like, hey, you know, I would like to get 500 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:51,160 more information about what you had in mind here because I thought your feedbacks were 501 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:52,600 really helpful. 502 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:56,120 They're going to be wanting to go ahead and give you that assistance, okay? 503 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,360 At least I would say most of the time, okay? 504 00:29:58,360 --> 00:29:59,360 There might be exceptions. 505 00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:00,360 Who knows? 506 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:02,080 Some people, there might be things going on in their life. 507 00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:05,040 Who knows why they're not wanting to, okay? 508 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:11,160 But most people tend to try to be very accommodating in this way, okay? 509 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:12,720 All right. 510 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:17,360 Here is the last thing I want to point out, okay? 511 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:21,600 Okay, so now you saw feedback from a bunch of different people. 512 00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,360 You're asking questions that are specific. 513 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:28,120 When you follow up with them, you're making sure that you're asking more detailed questions, 514 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:29,120 okay? 515 00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:31,320 And here's the last thing, okay? 516 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:38,480 Anytime you ask for feedback, always keep in mind that at the end of the day, you have 517 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,800 ownership of your own work, okay? 518 00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:43,440 What does that mean? 519 00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,280 That means that feedbacks are just that. 520 00:30:46,280 --> 00:30:48,400 They're feedback, right? 521 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:53,600 They're opinions, they're thoughts, there's ideas that others are presenting to you. 522 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:55,960 You can take it or leave it. 523 00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:57,120 That's up to you. 524 00:30:57,120 --> 00:30:58,640 You're the artist here. 525 00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:00,720 You're the creator, okay? 526 00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,240 Which means two things, right? 527 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:08,680 One, don't blame other people for changes you made on your work, right? 528 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:13,160 So if somebody gives you suggestions and then you incorporate that suggestion and then it 529 00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:18,760 turns out that maybe it wasn't the best creative direction to go and then so you get poor marks 530 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:20,160 or something, right? 531 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:21,320 Don't blame them. 532 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,720 They just gave you the feedback you were asking for, okay? 533 00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:26,960 You own your own shit, okay? 534 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:28,300 You own it, all right? 535 00:31:28,300 --> 00:31:33,000 You created it, you decided which feedback to take and use and which ones not to, okay? 536 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:35,120 That is your choice, okay? 537 00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:36,160 This is your work. 538 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:37,960 This is not on anybody else. 539 00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:40,400 This is solely on you, okay? 540 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,280 And this is important because if you want to be the kind of person that people want 541 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:51,700 to give useful feedback, people want to actually spend the energy to actually look through 542 00:31:51,700 --> 00:31:54,560 your work and then try to help you, okay? 543 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,640 If you want to be the kind of person that people want to do that for, then you should 544 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:02,880 not be the kind of person who blames them when things don't go quite as you wanted it 545 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:04,720 to, okay? 546 00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:07,840 They're providing feedback, which is exactly what you asked for. 547 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:10,200 What you do with that feedback, that's on you, okay? 548 00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:12,960 Again, you need to take ownership, okay? 549 00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,000 But here's the other thing that it does, okay? 550 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,680 It gives you a great deal of agency. 551 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:19,480 It gives you the control. 552 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:24,720 It gives you the power to know that you do not have to take the feedback and actually 553 00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:26,700 incorporate it, okay? 554 00:32:26,700 --> 00:32:28,880 You might have a difference in opinion. 555 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,720 You might have your own reasons for not incorporating certain feedback, right? 556 00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:38,240 Even if it's coming from a credible person, you might have your own reasons for it, okay? 557 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:39,380 That's fine. 558 00:32:39,380 --> 00:32:43,500 You don't have to incorporate all the feedback that others give, right? 559 00:32:43,500 --> 00:32:48,160 When I give feedback on personal statements or on essays at school, right? 560 00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,280 Like, you know, it's like, here's just here's feedback. 561 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:52,640 Here's some things that I noticed that I saw, right? 562 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:57,080 Here's the things that maybe I might want changed in a certain way, right? 563 00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,880 But you might have your own reasons for not doing it, right? 564 00:32:59,880 --> 00:33:05,260 And you might actually be correct depending on the specifics, right? 565 00:33:05,260 --> 00:33:09,160 You don't have to do any of the things I say you should, I suggest you do, okay? 566 00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:12,360 In fact, this entire podcast, anything I say, right? 567 00:33:12,360 --> 00:33:15,600 You don't have to take any of the advice or feedback that I give you. 568 00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:17,440 You don't have to do any of it, right? 569 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:19,520 That's on you, right? 570 00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:25,060 But here's the thing, that should be a form of empowerment for you because that tells 571 00:33:25,060 --> 00:33:28,860 you that you are ultimately the stopping point, right? 572 00:33:28,860 --> 00:33:32,000 You're the one who gets to make the ultimate decision. 573 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:33,560 You have that power. 574 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:37,320 Nobody has power over you and the work that you create. 575 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:40,980 You get to dictate what you want your work to look like, right? 576 00:33:40,980 --> 00:33:47,680 Which means that you get to ignore some feedback, right? 577 00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:51,940 Now you should, I highly recommend you have a good reason for doing so, right? 578 00:33:51,940 --> 00:33:54,520 But you could also adjust some of the feedback. 579 00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:58,220 Maybe somebody points something out and you're like, I don't agree, but they made you think 580 00:33:58,220 --> 00:34:02,480 about something a little different that now you're going to run with and then so you're 581 00:34:02,480 --> 00:34:04,140 going to make some other changes. 582 00:34:04,140 --> 00:34:07,820 That's not what was actually, you know, suggested to you. 583 00:34:07,820 --> 00:34:09,800 That's fine too, right? 584 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:11,520 Feedback is just that, right? 585 00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:13,440 Take it or leave it, okay? 586 00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:14,640 That's up to you. 587 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:17,900 Which means that, and here's the key, right? 588 00:34:17,900 --> 00:34:22,400 You don't have to be worried about negative feedback. 589 00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:25,120 You don't have to be worried about criticism, okay? 590 00:34:25,120 --> 00:34:28,880 I don't want you to think, this is one of the reasons that people don't actually seek 591 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:33,840 feedback in the first place, is that they are worried about other people critiquing 592 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:34,840 them. 593 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:36,080 They feel embarrassed about their work. 594 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:39,680 They feel worried that other people will not like their work, okay? 595 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:40,880 Here's what's great. 596 00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:47,200 If the control of that power is in your hands, then it doesn't matter what they say because 597 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:53,480 it's just their perspective and you can take it, you can leave it, it's up to you. 598 00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:54,760 You could ignore it. 599 00:34:54,760 --> 00:34:56,480 You can incorporate it. 600 00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,060 You can do whatever you want with it, okay? 601 00:34:59,060 --> 00:35:01,340 It is not an attack on you. 602 00:35:01,340 --> 00:35:03,300 It is not a knock on you. 603 00:35:03,300 --> 00:35:06,980 It doesn't mean that you are less than or you are worse at something. 604 00:35:06,980 --> 00:35:09,740 That is not at all what it means, okay? 605 00:35:09,740 --> 00:35:16,700 We need to create a culture where receiving feedback and criticism is not necessarily 606 00:35:16,700 --> 00:35:18,040 a bad thing. 607 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:23,240 But what I hope I showed you here is that when you ask the right sorts of questions, 608 00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:27,700 you're not going to get the kind of feedback that just leaves you feeling shitty, right? 609 00:35:27,700 --> 00:35:32,080 The feedback you should be receiving isn't, I like this thing or I don't like it. 610 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:33,620 That should not be the feedback you receive. 611 00:35:33,620 --> 00:35:40,880 If you ask the right questions, then the feedback you should be receiving are specific detailed 612 00:35:40,880 --> 00:35:49,040 explanations of what could change, what should change, what should stay the same, and why, 613 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,460 right? 614 00:35:50,460 --> 00:35:55,600 The why part here is going to be the most helpful in getting you to better understand 615 00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:57,620 what other people might be seeing. 616 00:35:57,620 --> 00:36:01,160 But at the end of the day, it's not really a knock on you. 617 00:36:01,160 --> 00:36:03,760 It's you trying to get this sort of information. 618 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:08,780 It's like you're crowdsourcing information so that you can produce the best work in your 619 00:36:08,780 --> 00:36:13,200 eyes, not in other people's, but in your eyes, okay? 620 00:36:13,200 --> 00:36:18,080 So when you seek feedback and you receive it, even if they might be pointing to things 621 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:20,920 that you completely disagree with, okay? 622 00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:24,180 That is not a reason for you to get upset. 623 00:36:24,180 --> 00:36:28,140 You might be upset, but you could go to therapy and then try to work on figuring out why that 624 00:36:28,140 --> 00:36:29,680 is, okay? 625 00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:34,180 What's important here is that they give you information, and now it's your choice what 626 00:36:34,180 --> 00:36:36,940 you want to do with that information, okay? 627 00:36:36,940 --> 00:36:40,880 And sometimes the best thing to do with the feedback you received is just simply to ignore 628 00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:41,880 it. 629 00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:43,600 But that is your choice. 630 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:44,960 I'll tell you this. 631 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:49,280 I ignore a lot of shit that people tell me, okay? 632 00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:52,880 Doesn't mean I'm right, but it's my decision, right? 633 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:57,600 So I hope you have that kind of agency over your work, regardless of whatever feedback 634 00:36:57,600 --> 00:36:58,600 you receive. 635 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:03,420 I hope that that opens up the door for you to being more open to critique, okay? 636 00:37:03,420 --> 00:37:06,280 Because a critique is meant to give you insight. 637 00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:07,700 It's meant to help you. 638 00:37:07,700 --> 00:37:09,520 It's not meant to hurt you. 639 00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:14,360 And if somebody is doing something where they're giving you feedback where all it does is just 640 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:19,280 clown on you and ridicule you and put you down, either you should be asking different 641 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:22,640 questions or you should just not go to that person, right? 642 00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:24,200 It's not useful feedback. 643 00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:26,400 It's not useful at all, okay? 644 00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:32,080 So I hope that you can use this as an impetus for you to try to get that sort of feedback 645 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:35,280 from others and to kind of accept critique in your life, okay? 646 00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:36,760 Because I'll be honest with you. 647 00:37:36,760 --> 00:37:39,280 If you cannot acknowledge critique, right? 648 00:37:39,280 --> 00:37:43,800 If you cannot acknowledge other people disagreeing with you, that's probably a sign that you 649 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:46,400 are a narcissist of some kind, right? 650 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:51,820 It might be an indication that you have a hard time receiving your views that are opposite 651 00:37:51,820 --> 00:37:57,440 yours or conflicting with yours or things that might not be the most flattering of you, 652 00:37:57,440 --> 00:37:58,440 right? 653 00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:03,840 I hope that you receive enough love in your life that you do not respond by crashing out 654 00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:07,480 when somebody gives you negative feedback, okay? 655 00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:10,000 So accept that you're the one in charge. 656 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,520 You're the one who gets to make the decision, okay? 657 00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:16,040 Feedback is just nothing more than additional information for you to use. 658 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:22,400 And accept that it is meant for your best interests, right? 659 00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:26,560 And you can accept it or not, but that's at the end of the day up to you. 660 00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:33,360 And you are the final decider of whether or not that fits with the kind of purpose or 661 00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:37,080 what you're trying to accomplish, what the work you're trying to get feedback on, okay? 662 00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:43,680 So good luck to you as you try to make those strides in your writing or whatever else you're 663 00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:47,680 receiving feedback on.