I’ve definitely noticed, in the very slow process of improving my social skills, that people (in general, and me in particular) don’t give nearly enough compliments or praise relative to the optimum. Past me just didn’t notice when there was a good place for a compliment—the skill that I improved was fundamentally a noticing skill. I also benefited a lot from understanding the psychological idea of validation—people want validation, not just praise for any old thing.
Re: working on a specific thing. I have more or less accepted that the amount of praise one gets will not fit one’s needs. There’s a fame effect that causes a fat tail, and no particular reward for merely trying, which I think is necessary given the number of non-experts and how easy it is to produce bad work without noticing it. I definitely have to work on intrinsic motivation.
I’ve definitely noticed, in the very slow process of improving my social skills, that people (in general, and me in particular) don’t give nearly enough compliments or praise relative to the optimum. Past me just didn’t notice when there was a good place for a compliment—the skill that I improved was fundamentally a noticing skill. I also benefited a lot from understanding the psychological idea of validation—people want validation, not just praise for any old thing.
Re: working on a specific thing. I have more or less accepted that the amount of praise one gets will not fit one’s needs. There’s a fame effect that causes a fat tail, and no particular reward for merely trying, which I think is necessary given the number of non-experts and how easy it is to produce bad work without noticing it. I definitely have to work on intrinsic motivation.