Writing and Feedback
It turns out that I'm not very good at writing. I know because I've listened to the feedback.
Most of my writing is better with the audio, so I try to talk for 3 minutes max. Thanks for listening.
It turns out that I'm not very good at writing. I have always been somebody who has spoken — used the written word little — in order to be able to communicate to other people.
Going further into the world of radio or other areas where communication was a key part of the work that I did, I avoided as much writing as possible. I don't even like email. Email is tough for me … because it's slow … and it doesn't adequately come across the way that I want — and I believe this, because I've gotten that feedback.
Feedback is good to receive. And if you can, avoid going to the negative side of feedback, and try to getting into the world of benefit of the doubt. It is helpful if you can kind of have an introspective reaction to feedback. Not everything somebody says about you, especially things that people say about you indirectly, is likely true. But when you get feedback from somebody, especially if you solicit that feedback, there's got to be an element of it that is fairly accurate.
So try to use the benefit of the doubt to listen and understand what could be true. And if it is even 50% true, 25% true, how can that change the way that you approach something?
I had somebody who I reached out to cold via email when I was trying to make a career change, and I asked to learn a little bit about the work that they did. They agreed. Thankfully, I showed up and talked to them for a good amount of time. And at the very tail end of the conversation that person said, “I'm really happy that you showed up today because you're so much better in person than you are in email.”
Recently, my friend, Josh*, who I really admire and does great work, told me that I write emails way too formally. I even write text messages way too formally — it's true. And I'm not surprised because the number one skill that I possess is talking, and so it's okay to know that my ability to talk does not translate into the written word.
It's part of the reason that I transcribe all of the writing that you find on this Substack because, honestly, I'm much better in person than I am in email.
*Josh runs Intelligame, which connects video games to the real world where he has deep, mindful conversations about the crossover between those two.
