I always think critics have no value, and only practitioners should be valued.
I write all kinds of things on this blog, but the writing and critique itself have no value at all.
Critique can become "poison," but it never becomes "gold" (not money — gold as something of worth).
Of course not everyone is satisfied with, or agrees with, every aspect of reality.
The clearest examples are metrics like wealth, race, origin, appearance, intellectual/athletic ability, education, body, environment — and beyond those, if you segment finely, there's an enormous set of composite evaluation metrics.
You have to live while accepting those metrics.
Whether someone likes them or cares about them, those metrics exist in practice, and people are evaluated by them.
For example:
・Even if we're told no occupation is noble or base, people still get evaluated by job and status.
・However shallow it is to judge people by looks, attractive people with strong physiques are (unconsciously / latently) more likely to leave a good impression.
These are halo-effect kinds of things — the label doesn't matter. What I want to stress is that such metrics do exist in reality. Nobody can look at the world with zero bias and no tinted glasses.
And even if you think a metric is wrong, to hack it at the root you first have to accept that "that evaluation metric, even if not explicit, clearly exists."
You need to adapt to that reality first.
Deliver results in that environment, grow the number of people who somewhat empathize with you, become someone with influence — only then are you ready to hack it.
Getting that influence takes steady, boring effort and an enormous amount of time.
Even so, the influence you earn that way is without doubt a "practical means" of changing the metric.
I believe practitioners are the ones who try to gain those practical means. It's a very tough path — but it's the only path.
Critics, on the other hand, skip that path and try to gain influence and change the world through "critique."
Ironically, mass media (and SNS and the rest) also praise those critics. People who can say clear, cathartic things to the crowd become "heroes."
But real power only comes from stacking one step at a time inside reality.
Why is changing the status quo so hard?
Because "every person's worth is equally precious."
Because every person's worth is equally precious, critique won't change reality.
Trying to change others' fundamental values and behavior through critique is presumptuous.
No matter how cathartic and easy-to-empathize-with the words you throw, others don't change that easily.
Only actions by people who have stacked results and have companions who empathize with what they do change reality.
Accept reality and adapt. What matters is only how much value you can create there, and how many companions will empathize with you.
© 2020 ZUUHE