Today's the day my manifesto, "To Criticize Is To Publicize: Make The Best Of Bad Words!", is published on ChangeThis. It's all about dealing with criticism — something you can almost certainly relate to. Within, I'll take you for a journey through social media, the naming of the Nintendo Wii, and my own adversities. Here's a teaser:
…if you’re the target of vicious attacks, you’re going to feel it. Contrary to a popular, mistaken approach, I’m not going to tritely admonish you by saying 'don’t take it personally.'
Instead, here’s a fresh path I’d like to take you on, and by the end of our journey, you’ll have a revitalized outlook on how to make the best of bad words."
ChangeThis is a magnificent library of fresh ideas which are often both startling and applicable in today's world. For instance, one of my faves, "I Am The Walrus: Lessons In Personal Branding from The Beatles". These manifestos, calls to action, buck the old guard, spark inspiration, and have lots of fun doing so. And that's something I can totally agree with.
I'm delighted to spread thought leadership alongside luminaries like Kevin Kelly, Seth Godin, and many greats I admire. It was some months ago when I asked you to consider my idea and vote, and thanks to that, I was accepted for the actual writing round. Editing was done in the last few weeks, and a dear thanks to DJJS and fellow ChangeThis mavens for publishing it in such an elegant, printable tome. I'm honored and effusively passionate.
Go on, READ IT HERE! And let me know what you think + feel.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice! It's good that there's something now out there that people could take on-board. Great work, as always!
Absolutely worth reading! Just several days ago, together with some friends, we had to deal with trolling and unfair/untrue comments about our project. You give very good advice and strategies in your manifesto, and I'm sure, if this kind of situation ever happens again, it will be much easier to handle
Thank you!
Thank you, Torley. I don't use Second Life much, but thoroughly am enriched by your thoughts on other issues like this. To find opportunities out of criticism is something wii all could benefit from. I will treasure this perspective.
Well done! I learned a lot from your essay – and I recognized people in the descriptions you gave of various types of criticism. This validated your analysis for me and helped me recognize why I respond to them the way I do.
Not only did you help me understand how to better respond to criticism, you've helped me understand how to improve the criticism I might want to give. I've put a re-occuring event in my calendar to reread your work.
@Jaymes: Thankya!
@Ayumi: I'm very happy to hear that — I'm so thankful I had this opportunity to make a manifesto and share, based on life experience.
@Russell: I really appreciate it. A lot of my lessons that I've learned from Second Life can be applied more broadly to one's first life (or in the case of cats, more than that).
@Honour: Wonderful! This delights me.
Torley, you have such a wonderful positive attitude on life. Thank you for sharing.
Torley,
I found that manifesto very interesting, and largely in keeping with how I tend to operate. I've run some sort of online community presence since the days of Fidonet, and there have always been those who seem to spend the bulk of their time pressing their loud, usually unwelcome, and frequently useless criticisms upon those around them. Once in a while, you'd find one or two who actually made sense, had worthwhile suggestions, and whose ideas were positive and implementable — but these were, as you say, rare nuggets of great worth.
One of the biggest problems I have with such things is in getting people to realize that when someone criticizes their ideas or point of view, it is not necessarily a personal attack, but only represents disagreement with a position or opinion. Too many times, people take such things personally, and get their feelings hurt. It's hard not to, but especially if you post things on blogs, are an artist or journalist, you need to be able to separate attacks on your position from attacks on your person.
You're an awesome person, and thank you for making everything you do available to all of us.