Pragmatic stuff first, then emotional. :-) Pragmatic: when hearing praise, my thoughts are sometimes, "yeah, yeah, cut to the chase." I guess you gotta read yo

Pragmatic stuff first, then emotional. :-) Pragmatic: when hearing praise, my thoughts are sometimes, "yeah, yeah, cut to the chase." I guess you gotta read your audience. Emotional: It IS easy to be negative. We also tend to over-experience/over-perceive the negative, which (partially) is how we get over-reaction to criticism or advice, even when asked for. And sometimes we really just want validation. I guess you gotta, uh, read your audience.