The comments section is where cowards shine. Our beloved student and artist, Ruben Rojas, made a piece once that called out Hater Culture which bold text that says, “You could make this, but you won’t.” This rebuttal to critics of his elegant style of art is a powerful reminder that critics without skin in the game haven’t earned weight in their words.
Just recently an acquaintance of my created a podcast called To Live and Die in LA that quickly became number one in the world. At the time of writing, it is the top rated podcast on the planet above NPR, the Joe Rogan Experience, everything. Surely, this is my opinion and obviously the opinion of millions of others, but I was taken aback by some of the reviews the show got. It’s beautiful storytelling of riveting content with a ridiculous score. As I eagerly checked to see if a new episode was out, I happened upon some one-star ratings. Though successful people can feel easy to pick on, because it seems like they have high castles and money and awards to fend off lowly critics,I felt defensive of Neil Strauss, who despite his continued success was giving a genuine, vulnerable best effort with this podcast.
While it shouldn’t have been surprising that I would be let down by the center of the American bell curve and their comments, I found a common trait amongst these haters. They all were spewing negativity without anything else to offer. They weren’t creating anything in the world (at least nothing that they communicated about) and they didn’t suggest anything better. It was complaining with no commitment.
My dear friend, Dr. Cara Miller, discusses this concept at length in her work. Cultures that perpetuate complaining are markedly ineffective and toxic. It’s a downward spiral. A better option is to offer a complaint with commitment. This sounds more like “I don’t like this and here’s what I’m committed to doing about it.”
Complaining is for unremarkable bored people. Commit to something if you want to be heard.
Logan Gelbrich
@functionalcoach
3/28/19 WOD
Complete 5 attempts at the following from the floor:
1 Push Jerk
2 Split Jerks
-Rest as Needed-
Then, complete 2 rounds for time of:
800m Run
5 Clean and Jerks (225/155)