

How to Give Criticism - useful if you have co-founders (I need to improve on this myself...) - chaostheory
http://zenhabits.net/2007/10/how-to-give-kind-criticism-and-avoid-being-critical/

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zach
This is the wrong way to do things because it's still focused on the person.
Criticise the work. The product. What's on the paper, the screen, whatever. If
you're being kind (or unkind), you're still focused on the person -- quit it!
Focus on the work!

If someone digs a hole in the wrong freakin' place, you don't say "gee, I
really appreciate your work digging that hole as deep as you did but it seems
something wasn't made clear enough to you, which is that the hole is intended
be located over there, where, as you can see, it would work much better."
Argh! Just say "Oh no, the hole is supposed to be over there!"

I know this seems like a tone-deaf socially ignorant approach, but here's the
thing. You're on the same team as the person whose work (not them) you're
criticizing. If it might seem like you're not, make that clear first.
Criticism must be a cooperative thing. Purely antagonistic criticism is evil.

And make clear what your taste is. There's a huge difference between "I hate
it" and "it's horrible," between subjective and objective. A front page with a
out-of-place word-art logo? That's an "I hate it" -- I just think it's ugly. A
user registration page with two screenfuls of fields to fill out? That's an
"it's horrible" -- it just doesn't work.

But maybe I'm wrong. A side project for me is studying creative leadership,
and this is some of the stuff I've picked up. So if you have a different view,
please blast away; I'd like to hear it.

~~~
chaostheory
The article does touch on this, but in a different direction:

"Relate to actions. Never criticize the person. Always criticize the actions.
And when you're making suggestions, make suggestions about actions, not about
the person. Not: "Maybe you could become a less lumpy person?" Better: 'I
suggest you get face smoothener ... it did wonders for me!'"

Moreover, I could be wrong but I feel when you criticize someone's work
(especially in the case of a programmer) it may not have an ideal result.

ex. "This code is pure garbage because ..." ~= "Your kid is retarded..."

Unfortunately I learned this the hard way during my internship years ago.

