Thought Confetti #6: On Criticism
Projects can be alienating [7647/1,000,000 0.76% toward my goal]
I can't help but feel that projects are shaped like this: you work on it and everyone around you is fully supportive, until you reach a certain scale that requires real tradeoffs to be navigated. Some people would navigate the tradeoffs one way, and some would navigate it another way. There is no possible solution to the problem that would satisfy everyone who was originally supportive. As such, the project gains new supporters along the way, but loses old ones. Each consequential tradeoff is a potential fork in the road -- another chance to lose friends who no longer agree with the path you took.
So the task of a project leader, then, is a lonely one: to make judgment calls that will inevitably be criticized by some and praised by others, and to slowly lose some of the supporters you started with.
As an example, I've gotten a critique of Fractal University (a volunteer project to bring low-cost, community classes to the city in a scalable way, with almost no governance or central control -- you can read more about here). The critique is something like: "it feels like Fractal University is starting to be more focused on money," which is the most Brooklyn-counter-culture-core critique I could imagine.
Fractal University has 0 administrative costs (the grunt work is entirely run by volunteers). Our teachers *set their own prices*. The vast majority of classes in the summer semester are priced at something like $5-500 sliding scale (e.g. pay what you can), for a 6-8 week class!
I don't know how an institution could make itself MORE financially accessible than this, except by running entirely on donations, which... sliding scale payments basically are.
Ultimately, I think this is one of the many cliff faces that all community organizers need to scale as they grow institutions inside community; the inevitable critique and alienation of some of the people close to you. It seems I am, in some small way, causing this alienation in my own friends, and it has left me feeling alone.
I don't mean to complain, though! The number of people who are critical of me or my projects is growing as I grow, but is by no means an unfair tradeoff for the joy I get by watching the projects grow into themselves. I just can't help but shake the feeling that this isn't the way it ought to be. I wish those making criticisms would get a beer with me and laugh about how there is no set of tradeoffs I can make that will satisfy all possible criticisms -- then spend some time trying to improve the system with me from within it, instead of critiquing it from without.
Complaints aside, it's worth noting: the first criticism for every project is something like "Who are you to do this?” In this case: who are you to start a community school? “You can't just do that. You have no budget and no official permission and no expertise."
This criticism is a familiar one, and I know how to resist it well, because it is voiced toward literally every project. It's always exactly the same criticism. It's honestly a bit exciting whenever I get that criticism, because I have a secret, which is that I know HOW to do the thing they are saying I can't do. So proving them wrong is actually a straightforward and satisfying challenge.
On the other hand, when I receive criticisms from my scene, it's more psychologically difficult. I haven't grown many projects to this level yet, so I don't have a familiar script to run. I don't know what to say. Do I ignore? Do I sit down and get coffee with them? Do I acquire another chip on my shoulder and work doubly hard to prove them wrong? But they're my tribe! It's not nearly so satisfying.
To all my friends, and to all the strangers reading this: I can use your help, I can use your inspiration, I can use your good ideas, and I can use your laughter, good faith, and friendship. But, despite popular belief, I can't actually use most criticism for much at all -- I am already my own worst critic, and most criticisms are in disregard of obvious tradeoffs that I have already considered. If you care about impact as much as I do, write me a letter next time. For more on how to correspond well, read about Good Reply Game.
Anyway, I think it may be worth reiterating that I'm just a guy trying to do good work in public, with my friends. I'm the same guy I was years ago, and I've been saying the same things for years. I'm the same kid who would pace around the pool in the summer heat, lecturing that nothing was impossible to those that would listen.
I want to feel empowered to create the world I dreamt about as a child. I want to raise my aspirations. I want to enjoy this wonderful world I was gifted, and I want to steward it for the next generation so they can experience the gift, too. I want to be ambitious, I want to be challenged, I want to be kind, I want to leave things *much* better than I found them. I want to engineer and re-engineer systems to perfection.
Sincerely, I think a single generation can build a Golden Age, especially during the information age. Which laws of physics are stopping us?
Anyway, I’ve gotten slightly off-topic, so I’ll conclude with this — if you would like to work together to achieve great things, to bounce ideas off of each other, and to improve and support each other's projects, there is nothing that would delight me more. But please, leave your criticism, I’ve got enough of it at home already.