The Disapproval Matrix

April 29, 2013 8:52 AM

If you're facing criticism and are having trouble "separating haterade from productive feedback", you might Ann Friedman's Disapproval Matrix helpful, especially when it seems as though everyone's coming down on you.
posted by AccordionGuy (16 comments total)

I'm probably just reading this too closely, but in its very attempt to meta-criticize sources of feedback, it becomes a taxonomy that essentially commits an ad-hominem attributions. Which makes it an unsound and incomplete filter. Yes, I disapprove.
posted by polymodus at 9:26 AM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

I would switch the two left quadrants. Lovers would tend to be more irrational. Frenemies might be rational but have other motivations.
posted by notmtwain at 9:35 AM on April 29, 2013

I find Goethe's three questions very useful when looking at any work:

What was the artist trying to achieve?
How well did they do it?
Was it worth the doing?

Critiques that leap to the third question, or stray into why the artist is a shitty person without considering any of the questions, are largely not worth bothering with.
posted by Artw at 9:45 AM on April 29, 2013 [13 favorites]

I find Goethe's three questions very useful when looking at any work:

"I like Byron, I give him a 42. But I can't dance to him"
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:02 AM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

> Tell all of these fools to sit down and shut up.

Sterling.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:12 AM on April 29, 2013

I was in the audience at MoxieCon where she presented this idea on Saturday. At a design conference that seemed to have a theme of "get out there and do stuff," her framework fit in really well. She was simultaneously helpful, super funny, snarky without being condescending, and awesome. (And tall. Very, very tall.)
posted by misskaz at 10:38 AM on April 29, 2013 [3 favorites]

I know haters gonna hate, because I'm interlocking. I'm Uptown-rocking. Electro-shocking.
posted by bleep at 10:49 AM on April 29, 2013

I really enjoyed this.
posted by bleep at 10:56 AM on April 29, 2013

The kind of funny thing, though, is that the article says you want to pay attention to the top two squares and not the bottom two. In other words, in this model, all the variation you care about is explained by the first axis. So uh... why even have another axis?

(clearly I have done way too much PCA over my career)
posted by en forme de poire at 11:00 AM on April 29, 2013

(also PCP)
posted by en forme de poire at 11:01 AM on April 29, 2013

The kind of funny thing, though, is that the article says you want to pay attention to the top two squares and not the bottom two. In other words, in this model, all the variation you care about is explained by the first axis. So uh... why even have another axis?

Because "yourself" belongs in the lower-left quadrant and the matrix would be incomplete with a designation for your own self-criticism?
posted by treepour at 11:08 AM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

It would still be there if you didn't have a separate quadrant for it, though. You could just call it out by name, so you'd have "critics, lovers" in the top half and "frenemies, haters, your inner critic" in the bottom half.

Actually, thinking about it further, maybe this unimportant second axis is supposed to emphasize that how well you know someone doesn't actually bear at all on the question of whether you should listen to them. Which would be a totally fair point.
posted by en forme de poire at 11:16 AM on April 29, 2013 [3 favorites]

I thought we all knew that haterade is chiefly comprised of damn you jealous.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:08 PM on April 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

I thought we all knew that haterade is chiefly comprised of damn you jealous.

Best served with a bowl of u-jelly beans.
posted by FatherDagon at 12:19 PM on April 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

"Critics and Lovers" sounds like a great title for just about anything.

posted by mmrtnt at 12:43 PM on April 29, 2013

.
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 5:59 PM on April 29, 2013