Post by Radrook Admin on Sept 18, 2023 0:01:39 GMT -5
The Danger of Being Praised for Bad Writing
Imagine this scenario. A boxer who is training to become a professional, has a trainer who always praises him no matter how he trains. He throws the jab the wrong way? That's OK. He has no balance in his fighting stance. That's considered excellent. He lacks defense via proper head movement and blocking. That is tagged as being amazingly efficient! Also, the trainer predicts that he will become a world champ once he becomes a professional.
Well, after years of so called preparation, fight night comes around and he gets knocked out in the first round. Yet, the trainer tells him it was just a fluke, and continues to assure him that he is OK and assures him that he is future world champion material. But every single time that the boxer tries to go pro, he is easily obliterated in a one-sided fights.
Finally, one of the gym members notices what's going on and tells him. This infuriates the trainer and he demands that the guy keep silent.
Well, this scenario is similar to what happens to writers who are constantly being praised for shabby writing, and, who thinking themselves excellent, submit their work to magazine and book editors who are then forced to reject it.
In short, all that the praise is doing is assuring that the writer will never correct his mistakes and improve until he succeeds. It keeps the hapless writer in a perpetual failure-mode from which he will never escape as long as he is under the effect of such irresponsible feedback that makes him consider himself infallible.
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.