I have been following blogs that strongly advocate disabling comments section as comments provide little value to the blogger most of the time. I never quite understood the logic behind that at first. But, when I tried it on my blog and my YouTube channel for the last couple of months I could finally, relate to what they were all talking about.

Comments from the public can hinder artists from creating their body of work. The effect of ‘popular’ feedback is only short-lived.

The feedback that comes from popularity becomes an addiction. How does the popular one stay popular? The cycle of short-term pleasing. Instead of standing up for things he believes in, he calculates what the audience wants to hear right now.

If your work is filled with the hope and longing for applause, it’s no longer your work - the dependence on approval has corrupted it, turned it into a process in which you are striving for ever more approval.

If we’re in love with the feedback and trying to manipulate the applause we get, we’ll cease to make the art we’re capable of.

Instead, here’s what we must seek out. 

Ask individuals for bold feedback; ignore what you hear from the crowd.

Show commitment. Consciously set long-term goals that are difficult to attain and do not waver from these challenging goals, regardless of the presence of feedback. If you’ve sacrificed your long-term compass at the altar of instant feedback, you might enjoy some short-term achievement, but you’ve given up your grit.

Only a self-negating artist reads his Amazon reviews and the Twitter feedback on his work. He will learn nothing and will amplify his lizard brain’s certainty of his worthlessness.