CRITICIZING
“don't criticize. show better ways. sandwich it. never belittle.”
The Lesson
Rule one: don't criticize. For skills requiring confidence (speaking, performing, creating), criticism destroys progress. Scott's drum teacher never says what's wrong. Only what could be better. Dale Carnegie's course: zero criticism, only praise. Everyone became excellent speakers. If you must give feedback: (1) Praise what they did right first. (2) Show a better way instead of pointing out the wrong way. (3) Third person: 'Others find they get better results when...' (4) Sandwich: 'Great job, just a few tweaks, almost done.' (5) Never belittle. Exception: safety issues require direct correction.
Real-World Example
A founder reviews an engineer's code. Wrong: 'This function is badly written.' Right: 'Nice work on the API integration. I've seen some teams get better performance when they structure it like this-take a look. We're almost ready to ship.' The engineer learns the improvement without losing confidence.
Watch Scott explain this lesson
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