Why is it so hard not to take criticism of your work personally?

Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.

similar topics

• Speakers of languages that grammatically separate the future from the present ('it will rain tomorrow') save less money; speakers of languages that let the future sound like the present ('it rains tomorrow') save more. As if pushing the future far away in grammar makes people care about it less. Is the money in your pocket really shaped by your grammar?
• Maximizers and satisficers: some people can't stop until they find 'the best', others pick 'good enough' and relax. The maximizers end up with objectively better outcomes, so why are they less happy?
• The hot-cold empathy gap: why can't we predict our hungry self when we're full, or our angry self when we're calm? How does our current emotional state block us from foreseeing our future decisions?
• Young children constantly mix up 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow', because time words are abstract. Curiously, most languages map time onto space: past behind us, future ahead. But some do the reverse and place the past in front, because you can 'see' it. Why can't we think about time at all without assigning it a direction we've never actually seen?
• A child who learns the word 'foot' finds it strange at first that a table has feet too, then takes it for granted. Language projects our body onto everything: the foot of a mountain, the eye of a needle, the neck of a bottle. Why must we understand the world by first mapping it onto our own body?