An ATP listener pointed me to a video that I have absolutely no interest in, but this one segment rang impossibly, incredibly true for me.

Here’s the quote:

Audience capture has a tricky cousin. And their name is criticism capture. Criticism capture is when you create something, and — instead of just saying what you wanted to say — you start adding caveats, disclaimers, little hedges to preempt the negative comments. And the bananas thing is, the imaginary critic starts living rent-free in your head, acting like a director or executive producer in your creative process. And if you create for the joy of it, you can see how that can quickly steal the joy from your work.

What’s funny about this concept is, as I was transcribing what was spoken, I subconsciously changed the direct quote — And the crazy thing is — to the more-agreeable And the bananas thing is. Because of criticism capture.

As a creator, it can (and often does) get the best of me.

I endeavor to be better. I doubt I’ll ever really succeed.

On the most recent ATP, if I’m honest, I spent an entire segment whining about what was ultimately a pretty decent Genius Bar experience. Comically, so far, I’ve gotten almost no negative feedback about that. In fact, I’ve gotten some insightful feedback from former Geniuses that I’ll share on the next episode.

In a later segment, I made an off-handed comment about how I snapped a photo of the F1 movie while I was watching it in the theatre. I was overjoyed because there was a pinball machine briefly featured in the film, and we own that exact same machine! I wanted to quickly capture it to show Erin.

Then I got this feedback:

I’ll give you a pass for the AppleCare screed on the latest episode of ATP, but did you just admit to taking out your phone in a theater to snap a photo?

Please don’t do this. While this was a delightful moment for you, and something you wanted to share, you just pulled attention from the screen for everyone beside or behind you.

As someone who still cherishes the theater experience, I find this kind of blatant disregard for the experience of those around you maddening.

There’s a lot wrong with the above, and a lot of assumptions made about my behavior that are untrue. But that’s not the point.

This feedback really pissed me off, but that’s also not the point. The point is: I hate that this kind of feedback reinforces criticism capture.

I will always and forever endeavor to be better, but it’s feedback like this that greases the already-slippery slope.

And it happens every time you share something with the world.