Feedback or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Getting Trashed

Why Your Harshest Critics Are Your Biggest Fans.

I work in trivia.

Yes, technically I'm mostly on the technology side, but when your core audience consists of Jeopardy! contestants, teachers, knowledge seekers, and pedants, who, by the way, are generally anonymous on the internet, you quickly and sometimes painfully feel the awesome power of feedback. Heaven help you if you write "1980's movies" instead of "1980s movies" or "attorney generals" instead of "attorneys general." When you work in trivia (and yes, that's a real job), you need ironclad facts, meticulous details, and rock-solid research to back everything up.

At Sporcle, criticism isn't just occasional – it's constant. But rather than run from it, we actively seek it out. We actually ask for feedback.

You may be wondering why would anyone invite more criticism? Especially when for a lot of people feedback doesn’t change things. When was the last time that you heard criticism, really took it to heart, and didn’t just make some minor tweak or small adjustment?

By and large, people tend to treat feedback like a box to check – something to endure rather than embrace. We sit through reviews, nod at suggestions, and maybe scribble down a few notes. But truly transformative feedback, the kind that sparks genuine growth, can be somewhat rare.

It's not for lack of input – everyone has opinions, and they're rarely shy about sharing them. But really hearing and acting on feedback requires something a lot of us struggle with: the willingness to be uncomfortable. It's hard to accept that our best efforts might need improvement, or to square with the fact that our carefully crafted plans or processes, developed over years of experience, might benefit from a fresh perspective.

So this week let’s dive into the art of feedback: why you should seek it out, how to filter what's useful, and how to transform it into actionable change.

And speaking of feedback – I'll be including polls about Chief Rabbit throughout this newsletter. As a thank you, if you complete any poll and either comment or like this post, you'll be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

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The Value of Seeking Feedback (Even When It Hurts)

Let's begin with something counterintuitive: the harshest feedback often comes from the people who care the most.

At Sporcle, our most vocal critics tend to be our biggest fans – the people who use our platform daily, who care deeply about accuracy and quality, and who want us to do better. They're not criticizing because they dislike what we do; they're criticizing because they want us to improve.

And this is true beyond trivia. Think about the person who meticulously reviews your work, catching every small error. Or the friend (or mentor) who challenges your assumptions about something you are working on. Yep, their feedback might sting, but these people are investing their time and energy because they see your potential.

I get it. It’s easy and natural to confuse criticism of our work with criticism of ourselves. When someone points out that we used the wrong "their/there/they're" in an email, we don't just hear "there's a grammatical error." We hear "you're careless" or "you're not good enough." The mental leap from "my work needs improvement" to "I suck" is a short one and it is what makes feedback so difficult to seek out and accept.

But growth happens at the edge of your comfort zone. A skill to build is to learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable cause that is where real learning takes place.

The truth is, feedback isn't about your worth as a person – it's about the gap between where you are and where you could be. Every piece of feedback, even the harsh ones, is essentially saying, "I see the potential for this to be even better."

And isn't that exactly what we want in our lives? To keep growing, improving, and refining what we do?

What I've learned from years of working in trivia is that feedback isn't just about fixing errors – it's about understanding your blind spots. We all have them. But a great way to identify and address these blind spots is through external perspectives. Sometimes those perspectives come wrapped in sharp words or pointed criticism, but that doesn't make them any less valuable.

Sorting the Signal from the Noise

OK all that being said, not all feedback is created equal. At Sporcle, for every thoughtful correction about the proper pluralization of "cul-de-sac" (it's "culs-de-sac," by the way), somebody is pissed because we didn't accept their spelling of "Shakespeare" (no, "Shacksphere" isn't close enough to count). Sometimes the challenge isn't getting feedback – it's figuring out what to do with it.

So how do you sort useful feedback from noise? I've found it helps to ask yourself three questions:

• First, what's the intent behind the feedback? There's a world of difference between someone who wants to help you improve and someone who just wants to prove they're smarter than you. The most valuable feedback often comes from people who take the time to explain why something is incorrect and provide sources. They're invested in making things better, not just in being right. Just look out for those mansplainers!

• Second, does this feedback align with your goals? Sometimes you'll get perfectly valid feedback that simply doesn't fit with what you're trying to do. At Sporcle, users occasionally suggest we change our 5-globe rating system to something else, making thoughtful arguments about how ratings can affect creativity. While these points are valid, our rating system is deeply integrated into both our platform and community culture. Making such a change would be disruptive and potentially counterproductive to our core objectives.

• Third, and possibly most importantly, is the feedback something you can actually act on? Understanding that something isn't working is only helpful if you can do something about it. "This quiz was dumb" isn't actionable feedback. "The quiz would be more engaging if you included more interesting facts about each answer" – now that's something we can work with.

I think it is important to develop "selective hearing" when it comes to feedback. Not in the sense of ignoring criticism, but in learning to zero in on the feedback that matters.

Cause even the most well-intentioned feedback needs to be filtered through the lens of your own expertise and experience. Just because someone has an opinion doesn't mean you need to act on it. The goal isn't to please everyone – it's to get better at what you do.

Turning Feedback into Action

When someone points out an area for improvement, our first instinct is often to explain why we did what we did, or worse, why they're wrong. For as noble as I am trying to make myself sound, I do this all the time. It's a natural defensive response, but it's also a missed opportunity for growth.

To actually benefit from feedback the first thing to do is to shut the f*** up and listen. I remember working at Adobe, where, just before I was about to hear feedback on a project, my manager told me to 'sit on my hands and do nothing but listen.'

And actively listening is everything here. Don't prepare your rebuttal while they're talking. Don't mentally catalog all the reasons why they don't understand the full picture. Just shut and listen. You'll likely be surprised by what you hear when you're not busy defending yourself.

Once you’ve taken all the glorious feedback in, how do you turn it into actual change? Try this:

• Take a beat. When you get feedback, especially if it's criticism, give yourself time to process it emotionally before responding. This isn't just about cooling down – it's about creating space to think clearly.

• Find the truth. Look for validity in the feedback, even if it's just a grain. Maybe the delivery was harsh, maybe they missed some context, but is there something valid at the core of their feedback?

• Choose your focus. Pick one piece of feedback to work on first. Trying to change everything at once is a recipe for changing nothing. This might mean putting some valid feedback on the back burner temporarily and that's okay.

• Define success. Get specific about what "better" looks like. "Do better" isn't a plan. "Add three interesting facts to each quiz answer" is a plan. Create concrete, measurable goals for your improvement.

• Set a timeline. Give yourself a specific timeframe to test changes – 2 to 3 weeks is a fair way to go. This creates some urgency while giving you enough time to see actual results.

You want to turn feedback into small, manageable experiments rather than overwhelming transformations. Make your response to feedback an experiment instead of a promise. This takes some of the pressure off and makes you more likely to actually try new approaches.

Finally – and this is a must – follow through. Nothing kills a feedback culture faster than asking for input and then ignoring it. Following through not only holds you accountable but also shows you value their input enough to act on it.

At Sporcle, we implement user suggestions when they make sense, and our community notices. They keep giving us valuable feedback because they see their input making a difference.

Remember, the goal isn't to implement every piece of feedback you receive. The goal is to remain open to the possibility that someone else might see something you don't.

In Conclusion

Winston Churchill once said, "Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."

And old Churchy was right. Feedback (and/or the pain it causes) can alert us to areas that need attention in our lives. It may not feel great in the moment, but growth is rarely without its discomfort.

Whether you're managing a team, running a business, or simply trying to get better at what you do, gathering feedback is pretty important thing to do. Not because every piece of feedback is valuable (it's not), and not because you should implement every suggestion you receive (you shouldn't). But because feedback – when properly filtered, processed, and acted upon – is the fastest path to improvement.

The next time someone offers you feedback, try fighting that natural defensive instinct. Sit on your hands if you have to. Listen more than you explain. Look for the truth, even when it's uncomfortable. And most importantly, be willing to experiment with change.

Taking in feedback is really about being willing to see yourself and your work through someone else's eyes. Sometimes those fresh perspectives are exactly what we need to move from good to great. After all, growth doesn't happen in our comfort zone – it happens in that uncomfortable space between where we are and where we could be.

Oh and remember, if you fill out one of these polls and either comment or like this post, you might just win that Amazon gift card. And hey, while you're at it, feel free to drop some feedback about Chief Rabbit in the comments or drop me a line.