Da drawing stay pau. It's attempt eleven, da hands stay plenny mo betta den dey wen look on attempt four, and you can see exactly where it still going wrong. Da cursor stay sitting inside da caption box and your thumb stay hovering ova da post button for da last four minutes.
This is one good place fo be standing. Putting your work out while you still learning pull in da one thing solo practice no can make: odda people's eyes on da exact problem you was working on. It's also da easiest step fo keep pushing back, and pushing um back stay expensive. Da fix no stay mo guts. It's one frame, one line above da work, dat tell everybody what dey looking at and exactly what you like from dem.
How I going post work I no stay good at yet?
Say what it is before anybody gotta guess: which attempt this is, what you was practicing, and da one thing you like one note on. One labeled attempt no stay one claim about your skill, it's one invitation fo look at one named problem, and people going respond to um way different den one piece with no label.
Undaneath da hesitation stay usually one picture of one big crowd studying your work close and making up dea mind about you. Dat picture stay wrong two times ova, and both mistakes wen get measured. Thomas Gilovich, Victoria Medvec and Kenneth Savitsky wen name da first one da spotlight effect: people always overestimate how much odda people notice dea actions and how dey look, cuz we anchor on our own loud experience of ourself and we no adjust nowhere near far enough fo da fact dat nobody else stay inside um.
Da second mistake run da odda way and stay mo useful. Anna Bruk, Sabine Scholl and Herbert Bless wen find what dey call da beautiful mess effect: when people imagine showing dea own vulnerability, dey focus on how bad it going look, and when dey watch somebody else do da same ting, dey rate um plenny mo positive. Your attempt eleven, posted wit one honest label, read to odda people as confidence. Only from da inside it read as exposure.
What I actually write inside da caption?
Three short lines and notting else: da number, da target, da ask. "Attempt 11. Working on hands, mostly da knuckles. If you draw, tell me one ting about da thumb."
Da number doing da heaviest lifting. It tell people this is one rep inside one series, not one finished claim, which quietly take away da standard dey would odawise put on um, and it put your own progress on da record where you can see um. Da target tell dem where fo look, so da note you get back stay about knuckles instead of about composition, which you neva was working on and no can use yet.
Da ask matta da most and dat's da one people leave out. "Thoughts?" invite verdicts, and one verdict no can use: you no can practice betta next week wit dat. One specific question invite craft, and craft transfer. Ask what would make da thumb read like one thumb. Ask which of two takes get da steadier tempo. Da mo narrow da question, da mo likely one genuinely skilled person going answer um, cuz one narrow question take dem twenty seconds and one general one take dem one essay dey no more time fo write.
How many people should see um first?
Three befo three thousand. Post to da smallest room dat get at least one person who actually do da ting, and stay dea for couple weeks befo you go wider.
One small room give betta notes and safer failures. Inside one group chat wit three people who draw, one bad attempt going get one specific fix. On one open platform, da same attempt mostly going get silence, which teach you notting and still feel like one verdict. Public get one cost you no can see at da start too: da minute get one audience, you going start choosing which attempts fo show, and choosing da flattering ones is how learning in public turn into performing in public.
Build da room on purpose. Two or three people little bit ahead of you and one person at your level stay one betta structure den one famous person who not going reply. Show up inside dea threads first. One room you wen contribute to for one month going answer you da day you post; one room you wen join dis morning no going.
What I do when one note sting?
Say tanks, write da note down, and do notting about um for one day. Da delay separate da content of da feedback from da sting of um, and dose two come togetha but no gotta get handled togetha.
Next day, sort da note into one of three piles. Useful and correct, which go straight into da next attempt. Useful but not yet, which go on one list for when you further along, cuz plenny accurate advice stay aimed at one version of you two hundred hours from now. And not useful, which happen and dat's okay. You wen ask one specific question; anybody answering one different one wen tell you about demself, not about your work.
How I comment on somebody else's attempt eleven?
Name da exact ting dey wen do good, den answer da question dey actually wen ask. "Da knuckles stay plenny betta den your last one, especially da index finger" stay worth mo den fifty hearts and take da same ten seconds.
This no stay one courtesy paragraph and it no stay decoration on da article. It's da same skill you trying fo build, practiced from da odda side. Fo praise somebody precise, you gotta look at dea work close enough fo say what wen change, and dat's exactly da attention you been failing fo give your own. It's mo easy fo learn um on somebody else's piece cuz your ego no stay in um.
Da return no stay only technical. Gallup's long running work on recognition wen find dat only about one in three US workers strongly agree dey wen get recognition or praise for good work in da past seven days, and dat when people describe da recognition dey rememba da most, money no stay da top answer. Specific, public, named acknowledgment stay scarce, and it cost da giver one sentence.
Get one version of dis dat cost little bit mo and stay worth even mo: say somebody's name inside one room dey not in. When one person stay looking for somebody who can draw hands, or mix one record, or debug one build, saying "ask her, she been working on exactly dis" stay one career event for her and one sentence for you. Da room you build dis way is da room dat going be dea for your own attempt eleven.
Da room you build is da room you get
Notting here asking you fo be mo brave. It asking you fo be mo clear, three lines above da work, befo your thumb stay hovering anywhere. Say da number, say da target, ask da one question, and post um to three people who do da ting.
Den keep going, cuz da point of learning in public was neva approval. Da point is dat one note from somebody who been where you stay can cut weeks off one problem you was about fo spend one month on, and you no can get dat note witout letting somebody see attempt eleven. Post mo den feel comfortable and post um mo early, keep da standard high in private, and stay precise about odda people's work while you at um.
One year from now, da useful ting not going be da likes. Going be four people who know exactly what you practicing and going tell you da truth in one sentence.
Sources
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, The spotlight effect in social judgment: an egocentric bias in estimates of the salience of one's own actions and appearance
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Beautiful mess effect: Self-other differences in evaluation of showing vulnerability
- Gallup, The Importance of Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact