
Constructive Criticism Is Bullshit - irox859
http://www.joshuarust.com/2016/04/constructive-criticism-is-bullshit_6.html
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dalke
> At some point in the corporate world the term "constructive criticism" came
> into vogue.

Looks like the 1920s -
[https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=constructive+c...](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=constructive+criticism&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cconstructive%20criticism%3B%2Cc0)
.

For example, here's a 1919 source which uses that phrase three times:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=FFccAQAAMAAJ&q=%22construc...](https://books.google.com/books?id=FFccAQAAMAAJ&q=%22constructive+criticism%22&dq=%22constructive+criticism%22&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y)
.

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irox859
Many thanks for the info

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dalke
You're welcome. Ngrams is a great tool for questions like that.

As for the essay, "constructive criticism" means two things. One is feedback,
which can be negative, designed to improve things. Peer review of scientific
papers is sometimes a form of constructive criticism.

Another - the one the essay highlights - is when 'constructive criticism' is
used as cover for punching down, in order to minimize the negative
repercussions.

(It's also a way to enforce a "tall poppy syndrome" culture, but the essay
didn't mention that type of 'constructive criticism.'

"Devil's advocate" is a similar term with two different meanings. In the best
of cases, it's someone who gives negative criticism meant to highlight the
flaws in a proposal, even if the speaker is not against the proposal. In
practice it's more often used as a cover for someone who wants to make a
negative comment without putting much thought into the topic, and who doesn't
want the triteness of the comment to be interpreted as personal ignorance.

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danieltiIlett
The intended reaction to constructive criticism has nothing to do with the
critic. When you receive constructive criticism, it means you are doing
something wrong, and you are supposed to _fix_ your behavior.

