I approach criticism critically. Then I usually decide the person criticizing me is an idiot, the wrong person to talk to, or that they had something useful to

I approach criticism critically. Then I usually decide the person criticizing me is an idiot, the wrong person to talk to, or that they had something useful to say. When people criticize me, it doesn't make me feel down. It makes me feel smarter or at least ahead of the curve around my ideas, some of the time, and lets me learn something useful the rest of the time. You sound like you are running a neuro-semantic loser script about your project. That's not the way to change the world. You can't play this game if you care that much about what eight douchebags who happen to know you think. Instead of "criticism is a downer" try substituting "criticism is a valuable chance to play a mental game with my ideas" You should lose the depressed downer reaction right away. Then, you should think about the criticism, and if it's useful, don't be so arrogant that you don't take it. If it's not useful, either they are stupid or just not relevant. Either way, nothing to be depressed about. Or, maybe you actually are a loser and just are in a state of cognitive denial about what a loser situation you are in, I don't know. (You could give your framework to communities all over the country who do similar community reporting.)