Feedback is a Metric. Not a Direction.

Many of us confuse "listening to feedback" with "following feedback." Taking on board “constructive criticism” with “I need to change course immediately”.

The truth is more nuanced: Feedback is simply a measurement. A data point that reflects the world's reaction to your work. Not an instruction manual, but a collection of refinements possibly required to finetune the product.

The distinction matters.

 Treating feedback as direction means outsourcing your decision-making. Treating it as a metric means using it as one input among many to make better decisions.

While external validation serves a purpose, it's a tool with a narrow range of useful applications.

You need external validation when you're calibrating against reality. If you're building a product and nobody wants it, that feedback is critical. If you're communicating an idea and everyone misunderstands you, that's a signal worth hearing.

External validation helps you escape your own assumptions, and tests whether your internal map matches the territory.

You don't need external validation when you're exploring uncharted territory. The world can't validate what it doesn't yet understand. This is vital to remember. Misunderstood doesn’t mean failed. It means more polish is needed.

The danger zone is becoming addicted to validation itself. When your choices are based on what will be praised rather than what serves your actual goals. When you need approval more than you need truth, you've handed the steering wheel to the crowd.

Now the paradox is: while you shouldn't blindly follow external feedback, you also can't trust yourself completely. Your mind is an echo chamber by design. Constantly confirming its own beliefs and bias when feedback doesn’t  cater to your ego and feelings.

This is why complete self-reliance is as dangerous as complete reliance on others. The artist who never shows anyone their work isn't pure… they're just sensitive. The entrepreneur who dismisses all critique, isn’t confident…they're just defensive.

You have to treat your own counsel with the same scepticism you should apply to everyone else's. Your compass might be pointing north, or it might be broken. The only way to know is to occasionally check it against the stars.

Not all feedback is created equal.

Most of it is noise because criticism is cheap and aplenty. Any fool can point out it’s about to rain when the first drops start.

The criticism you want to pay attention to is the expensive type. The kind that requires thought. You’ll recognise it because it’ll name the perceived problem and pull up a chair to help you solve it.

If someone says your writing is "boring", that's noise. If they say, "the first three paragraphs make the same point and I started skimming", that's signal. One tells you there's a problem. The other tells you where to look.

Pay attention to pattern recognition. If one person says your product sucks…probably noise. If 5 people say it sucks…probably signal.

And here's a controversial take: sometimes the most reliable feedback comes from people who don't like you very much. They're not invested in protecting your feelings, so if they point out a specific flaw, it's probably real. Just make sure they're critiquing the work, not you.

So

How do you know if you're on the right path or need to pivot?

Feedback can't answer this question for you. It simply tells you how the world is reacting to what you're doing. Only you can determine if that reaction matters based on what you're trying to achieve.

Start with your goals. Are you trying to build a profitable business or create art that satisfies you? Are you trying to reach a mass audience or serve a specific niche? The same feedback means different things depending on your destination.

Then layer in your principles. What are you unwilling to compromise on? If any criticism suggests a path that violates your core principles…ignore it. Success that requires you to become someone you don't respect isn't success. It’s death by a thousand cuts.

Check against your values. Does this feel aligned with what matters to you? Are you moving toward the kind of life you want to live, or just toward metrics that look good?

If the critique reveals that you're not achieving your stated goals, that's worth taking seriously. You might need to change your approach or change your goals. If it reveals that people don't like your approach but you're still achieving your goals, that's interesting data but not necessarily a reason to change. If it suggests changing your goals themselves, treat it as a metric about what other people want - which may or may not align with you.

Pivots should come from a clear-eyed assessment that your current path won't get you where you want to go, not from fear that people don't approve of your path.

Yes…you need some external validation to stay tethered to reality, but you can't let the crowd make your decisions. You need to question your own assumptions, but you can't outsource your judgment. You need to listen to criticism, but you need to filter signal from noise.

So, collect feedback broadly. Filter it ruthlessly.

Measure it. Analyse it. Learn from it.

But remember what it is.

A metric.

Not a direction.