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I don't really share everyone's obsession with fighting "negativity". Actually I find the lack of nonconstructive bitching to be quite annoying: sometimes that'

I don't really share everyone's obsession with fighting "negativity". Actually I find the lack of nonconstructive bitching to be quite annoying: sometimes that's exactly what's needed. I bet the public pressure to always appear "positive" makes people feel oppressed: perhaps that's the underlying emotional background that feeds audiences to shows like "South Park" and rants like Zed Shaw's. Because force-fed "positivity" is everywhere: from bloodless CNN reporting of wars to always happy-ending movies. George Carlin's famous "pussification of English" is like an entire nation wearing invisible bracelets like these. To me that's borderline to orwellian doublespeak. Fake "positiveness" comes at a cost. Both big corporations I worked for were filled with always-smiling, "outgoing, positive team players" who'd pollute everything they say with "great, awesome, tremendous" and other positive reinforcers that lost all their meaning because of overuse, while real problems tend to be overlooked and forgotten - nobody wants to be that asshole. My experience at startups has been the opposite: no time/money for fake bullshitting, "this sucks and needs to be better" isn't a taboo, it's almost a mantra.

iigs 18y ago
I agree to an extreme level. I also worked at a large corporation that didn't tolerate negativity, and it was miserable. There's a difference between attacking an idea and attacking the person advancing the idea.
Elepsis 18y ago
I would argue that "this sucks and needs to be better" is actually not included in Ferriss's definition of a complaint. By saying that it needs to be better you are 90 percent of the way to also stating the steps you'll actually take to improve it. I like this concept not because of its "negativity-fighting" aspects, but because it tries to cultivate a problem-solving mindset. That, at least, should be near and dear to most of us.
- tigerthink 18y ago
  OK, so how about the example at the beginning of the article when the author was complaining about how difficult it was to resize photos on his Mac? Do you suppose it's enough that the "this needs to be better" was implied, or do you think he should have added something else? Like it or not, a lot of the time the things that suck can't feasibly be improved by yourself.
davidmathers 18y ago
South Park is a great example of not complaining. Complaining would be writing a blog post about how much Kanye West irritates you, or writing a letter to Kanye telling him how much he irritates you. Not complaining is creating a hilarious cartoon mocking Kanye West and publicly shaming him. Negativity can be awesome. Complaining mostly just sucks.

iigs 18y ago

I agree to an extreme level. I also worked at a large corporation that didn't tolerate negativity, and it was miserable. There's a difference between attacking an idea and attacking the person advancing the idea.

Elepsis 18y ago

I would argue that "this sucks and needs to be better" is actually not included in Ferriss's definition of a complaint. By saying that it needs to be better you are 90 percent of the way to also stating the steps you'll actually take to improve it. I like this concept not because of its "negativity-fighting" aspects, but because it tries to cultivate a problem-solving mindset. That, at least, should be near and dear to most of us.

tigerthink 18y ago
OK, so how about the example at the beginning of the article when the author was complaining about how difficult it was to resize photos on his Mac? Do you suppose it's enough that the "this needs to be better" was implied, or do you think he should have added something else? Like it or not, a lot of the time the things that suck can't feasibly be improved by yourself.

davidmathers 18y ago

South Park is a great example of not complaining. Complaining would be writing a blog post about how much Kanye West irritates you, or writing a letter to Kanye telling him how much he irritates you. Not complaining is creating a hilarious cartoon mocking Kanye West and publicly shaming him. Negativity can be awesome. Complaining mostly just sucks.