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Volume 7

#7.18 How feedback can kill your personal project

Hello Amazing!
I am a huge believer in personal projects (this newsletter is my favorite example of one of my own). I’ve gotten a lot of constructive feedback on my work, which has helped me improve the quality. Feedback is seen mostly as a universal good. However, when it comes to personal projects I have also found that feedback can have a significant cost in terms of depressing my motivation, which is the only energy that drives the project forward. For example I recently asked for constructive feedback on my podcast from someone and while their points were all valid, the most immediate effect was that I stopped recording altogether. My motivation was already fragile and I think asking for feedback in that moment was a mistake because it took out the last bit of motivation. I beleive this is a general point when it comes to asking for feedback on your personal projects: no matter how valuable the feedback is it won’t matter if it it kills the energy that moved your project forward. So when someone suggests that you should ask for more feedback, first take stock at your motivation and ask yourself: can I afford the associated loss of motivation or will it kill the project entirely? 
With much love  

— Mathias

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