I Learned to Shut Up when Learning
There is a thin line between the differences between explaining and talking. It’s easy to get confused and often leads to no good
In 2014, I participated in a national Web Design and Development contest. As a developer student, a design teacher volunteered to help me with the design aspect. When I first met her, she offered to review one of my designs in class.
My taste in design was influenced by flashy drafts designs online, especially from Dribbble. Not understand much of its effectiveness, I thought having a huge footer was solid and cool.
But the teacher pointed out it wasn’t suitable for my design. Since it was a one-page app, the page’s height is the browser’s height. A big element tells the viewers “this is important”, while in fact, the content was the important part.
I didn’t understand the point at the time and persistently explaining why I used a huge footer. It was the last time I saw her. She quit helping me.
A few years later, when thinking back, I realized it was a mistake.
Paul Graham — a founder of Y Combinator, mentioned when giving advice, good startups’ try not to confront it. Their responses are “we already tried it”, or “from speaking to our users that isn’t what they’d like” ¹
There is a thin line between the differences between explaining and talking back. It’s not the same from each person’s perspective and often misunderstands. When giving advice, people might feel unappreciated receiving a talkback. Some will respond to the stubbornness, or they might not. Some will eventually quit.
Later on, unless when not looking for advice, I try to shut up and listen.
