This printout is now hanging in my cubicle. The comments refer to the website I spent the five past months working on, which launched on Tuesday.
In extensive testing and surveying of a wide audience, we received a 95% positive response rate — so, no, the site isn’t really as bad as the comments above would make out. But these comments were among the first to be posted on the new site, and are (in the comments section) by far the majority.
So why would I put up the most aggressive, belittling, and depressing comments as a permanent fixture of my cubicle? Because I never want to forget that I can always do better, and that working for the acclamation of men is always going to turn up hollow.
I want to stay humble and hungry, and do better next time … not because I think I’ll ever reach a point where there aren’t negative comments, but so that when I leave my cubicle, and turn the lights off that light up that blue piece of paper, I can say, “Before God and others, I’ve given my love to this project and done my very best. These voices will come, but they can’t undo the work that’s taken place today. And now I’m going home to my wife and daughter.”
Think of it as a creative praise-seeker’s Memento Mori.