Regarding Ron AshKenas’s “Don’t Ask for Feedback Unless You Want It”, I thought it was an interesting take on the psychology behaviour of humans.

Throughout education, we were taught that we should always ask for feedback for any of our work because having others’ opinions will further stimulate our critical thinking. However, this behaviour is not necessarily beneficial. In fact, Ashkenas states that we only ask because we feel obligated to. We may not actually feel the need to ask for feedback if we are already confident about ourselves, but we still ask anyway because we feel socially mandated to.

Personally, I find myself guilty of this behaviour when I ask my friends about decisions that I have already decided. However, I believe it is the reassurance and support that my choice was correct that I go ask for my friends’ advice. If you are absolutely confident what you decided to right for you, asking people for their feedback might instead hinder your outcome as their suggestion may advice you to think differently.