09-01-2016, 02:15 AM
Great insight and you are spot on. Regardless of the source, feedback can be useful. Just finished reading a biography of William James; he saw everyone as a potential teacher - whether it was a child, a laborer, a professor - anyone. It's like having zen mind. Truth can be revealed in surprising places.
(08-31-2016, 11:23 PM)dukealien Wrote: Was just reading an essay on open-source (computer) programming and a, maybe, profound insight popped out:
"With enough eyes, every bug is shallow."
Translated from programmerese, what the writer meant is that when there's a problem (bug) in a program (text), it can be very deep (hard to disentangle from the rest of the code (poem)) or even find for the lone programmer (writer). However, with enough user/programmer (reader/poet) eyes on the code, one set (or several) will not only discover the problem but present an elegant and functional solution which also addresses all its deep-rooted (in the rest of the code/poem) ramifications.
Another way to say this is, "I'm smarter than you are, and you're smarter than I am." That is, my poem may be genius, but your solution to a weakness I didn't even see is genius, too, even if we don't think we're at the same level of skill.
So that's why crit works, even if it seems snide or shallow.