When I was younger, I used to write some rather wild stuff.
In undergrad, I started a paper on Samuel Huntington with:
“I am smarter than Samuel Huntington.”
My professor, who referred to Huntington as “Sam,” grilled me for that alone. He would give me B’s on every paper, which would infuriate me, as I would push harder and harder. Alhamdulilah, he gave me an A at the end, but, he said something to me that has stuck with me.
He told me that it is easy to criticize what others do when you do nothing. You have nothing at stake, just the relative accuracy of your critique, for there is nothing you must show, save your critique. As a result, we live in a society which encourages us to critique everything, learn some things, and do nothing.
It made me far more conscious of how my work should be constructed: towards solutions, and if I disagree with something, I need to provide alternatives, otherwise, what am I bringing to the world other than negativity?
