What type of feedback motivates you?

[Michaelangelo]

What type of feedback motivates you?  Be it at work, home, or even on a trip... if you hear bad feedback, does it get you to want to do better?  If you hear good feedback, does it make you feel like you're doing the right thing and keep pushing forward, if you hear neutral feedback does it affect you at all, and if you don't get any feedback does that make you feel like you're doing something wrong or right?

What motivates you and how? 

I read fan mail that goes to famous people and I see such a wide type of feedback they get... good, bad and neutral...  though sometimes I see more and more negative feedback lately and it just makes me wonder is this motivating them to keep things going to get better, or if it's getting them to wonder why they keep trying....

So thought it may be an interesting topic to see what motivates people to do things...

[TurtleNinja]

I prefer positive feedback because most of the feedback I got when I was growing up was either negative or my efforts were outright ignored. It left me with a LOT of personal problems and made me wonder for most of my life if I'd ever be good at anything at all. Positive feedback lets me know that I'm doing something right, that people like, and that I should keep doing it.

That's not to say I'm adverse to criticism. The same people who gave me negative feedback growing up often said that I couldn't take criticism, even though there's a difference between criticism and essentially telling someone they'll never be any good. I like polite criticism, where a person tells you where you made mistakes, but isn't a complete jerk about it.

When a person is nice and calm and patient about telling me what I did wrong, I take it just fine and even welcome the feedback. When someone is mean or nasty or snide about it, then it's really quite discouraging and I have a difficult time talking to that particular person again, knowing that they're just going to be nasty whenever I need input.

Positive feedback is very helpful in my case, opposed to negative feedback, and I like polite pointers with mistakes I made, not people doing the whole "point and laugh" bit whenever I do something wrong. It doesn't help, believe me.

[Amicitia]

Where do I vote for concrit? As in "good job on x, and it would be even better if you did y".

[Danceingfae]

Gotta be positive. Constructive is good as long as it is kept positive. No one ever grows from hearing negativity.

[Michaelangelo]

Where do I vote for concrit? As in "good job on x, and it would be even better if you did y".

That is positive... meaning they're not just bashing what you did but they're saying good job here.. and can go onto the things ya need work on...  it's the way you're approached... so this isn't about the full subject line, but how it's presented to ya.

[Amicitia]

*votes*

Wow, pretty one-sided there.

[Michaelangelo]

Yeah, kind of noticing that too.... 

[Nightwatchersonlygirl]

I like good feedback that always makes me feel good

[klork]

I didn't vote because ...well, I go for constructive--which isn't always 'nice' persay, but it gets the point across.  I've had years of 3 to 4 hour long critiques in art classes--sometimes I left with a warm fuzzy feeling--but usually didn't learn anything, and other times I left feeling irritated that I didn't quite accomplish what I was aiming for, which drives me to go back, do it again, and do it better.   If people told me "wow, your stuff looks good" I don't think I would have grown in any way shape or form in art.

All I gotta say is that art students can be *harsh* on your work, mainly because there's a broad like of styles, and if they don't like your style, they'll rip apart verbally what you do and then, after they've burned you to your ashes, they turn around and wet and mold your ashes, fire them, glaze them, and turn them into something shiney.  It's debatable on whether or not that's considered 'good', though

[KamedaLawnMowerHead]

I didn't vote because ...well, I go for constructive--which isn't always 'nice' persay, but it gets the point across.  I've had years of 3 to 4 hour long critiques in art classes--sometimes I left with a warm fuzzy feeling--but usually didn't learn anything, and other times I left feeling irritated that I didn't quite accomplish what I was aiming for, which drives me to go back, do it again, and do it better.   If people told me "wow, your stuff looks good" I don't think I would have grown in any way shape or form in art.

All I gotta say is that art students can be *harsh* on your work, mainly because there's a broad like of styles, and if they don't like your style, they'll rip apart verbally what you do and then, after they've burned you to your ashes, they turn around and wet and mold your ashes, fire them, glaze them, and turn them into something shiney.  It's debatable on whether or not that's considered 'good', though

*wonders if this means you want her to take back every time she said she loved your "Blah!" works ... O_O

[klork]

*wonders if this means you want her to take back every time she said she loved your "Blah!" works ... O_O

...

STOP that!    (Mind you, you do give constructive criticism when I'm MAKING said pieces though, you don't always go "OOoo, shiney!")

[Michaelangelo]

Heh well as I said good feedback isn't always saying "Hey that's pretty"  good feedback is giving feedback with a positive view on it... so saying stuff like "That's great, though you can fix this" it's the way things are approached not the things that are said that I'm aiming at here....

So yeah, someone can say fix this and that... and be nice about it. 

Though if you have a job and all you heard from those you're doing the job for is..... how badly you do that job... how they could do it better.... how you don't know what you're doing.... how could be replaced.... and just heard that stuff over and over... that's the negative feeling I'm talking about...  even if these people don't know your job really, have never done a job like you're doing, just sees the work put out and thinks they know better.... sometimes even guessing at what they think is what you do... just people ripping ya apart.

I don't mind people saying "fix this" if said it in the right way... but if someone comes over and says "Your work stinks, you need to fix this and this now!" yeah I wouldn't be at all happy with the person.  If for that same job someone came up and said...  "Hey, we're having issues with these parts could you do this instead?"  it's just a different full personality on how it's coming off.

[KamedaLawnMowerHead]

Agreed.  Constructive critics usually have something positive to add to their suggestions.  An additional, "But it looks great!" or "Keep up the good work, though!"  I tend to get .. snippy if all they have to say is something rude. 

I really try not to come across harshly when ever I am asked to review a piece.  Sometimes I get absorbed and only see the "Ooooh, shiney!" for a while, but usually I can come back 'round it reminded that's not what I'm supposed to be doing. 

[TurtleNinja]

Likewise. I don't want people to NEVER tell me anything bad about my work. It's just a matter of HOW they do it. If people are snippy, snotty, or rude, then I don't want to hear it. A person can tell you where you need improvement and how without being cruel. I can easily take a good suggestion for improvement that has been politely stated with my best interests at heart and use it to improve myself and be motivated to do better.

When people are nasty to me, then that makes me want to give up. I don't like people who are mean just to be mean or because they think they know better than everyone else. That's the sort of thing I consider "negative" feedback, when people are mean just because they want to hurt you. I don't deal well with that.

"Positive" feedback to me is where people tell me my work is good, but that's not all I want to hear. If someone says, say; "Your story's good, but it would be better if you expanded X scene and told us what Y character is thinking", that's a nice sort of criticism that says they like my work, but they're also giving me feedback on places I can improve upon without putting me to tears.

If someone's criticism or feedback puts you to tears or makes you feel bad or want to give up, then they're not a nice person and it's not good feedback. Feedback may not always be about warm fuzzies and good feelings. I certainly feel disappointed when I see suggestions because it means I rushed a chapter or wasn't on my A game, but when it's stated politely, I'm more apt to listen, look at the suggestions and take them to heart, usually resulting in improved fiction.

When people tear me to shreds like lions on a fresh kill, that usually ends up with a scrapped project because it leaves me thinking it REALLY sucked or was a really stupid idea nobody wanted to hear about.

It really is less about positive vs negative in terms of feedback and more about people's attitudes. If people have a good attitude, I welcome the feedback. Snide remarks and nasty attitudes don't motivate me at all. I can take suggestions and criticism, but not when a person is so harsh, it's like they're doing it to hurt you rather than improve you.

[Machias_B]

I love any sort of feedback, ranging from the "Wow, awesome, update soon!" to the "Maybe you can ____". It's just seems hard sometimes to get detailed feedback, just cuz people aren't able (or willing?) to stop and take the time to really read something over..