If You Struggle Handling Criticism, Read This:

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein has developed what @nntaleb called Wittgenstein’s Ruler.

"Unless you have confidence in the ruler’s reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table, you may also be using the table to measure the ruler."

Just as we don't eat the kernel of an apricot, we shouldn't take an entire criticism.

In every critic, a part isn't edible.

“When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion." - Dale Carnegie

Criticisms shouldn't touch us emotionally but are always thrown at us by emotional & logical people. Sometimes way more emotional than logic.

Next time, remind you to remove the kernel of a criticism.

Then, remind you that the less you trust the ruler’s reliability, the more information you are getting about the ruler and the less about the table.

A criticism from a stranger on the street is not as reliable as a criticism from your best friend.

Ludwing tells us that nothing can fully measure you! There are no absolute rules capable of measuring your intelligence, abilities to do something, character.

The best ruler we have is ourselves. Therefore, expect applause only from yourself.

In the words of Richard Francis Burton, the polyglot British explorer:

“The noblest lives and the noblest dies who makes and follows his own laws. This ability to have his inner lawgiver and to fix himself to it. Not to live in the ideas of others.”