And if your goal is to unearth entirely new planes of understanding, avoid feedback like it’s the Great Plague of London.

If your goal is to create a popular version of a well-established thing, like a pizza parlour, seek plenty of feedback.

If your goal is to create something somewhat novel that still requires stakeholder buy-in, like a tech company, avoid feedback during exploration phases and seek feedback during exploitation phases. Going back to the two opening qu... See more

Avoiding feedback also doesn’t mean complete social isolation. A small research lab or a mission-driven startup can approximate a single mind and explore freely. But it does mean taking your own ideas seriously enough to see them through, even if others disagree. Even self-doubt as a form of feedback needs to be carefully regulated.

A tradeoff occurs every time you get feedback. You become slightly more mainstream, slightly more aligned with the zeitgeist. You become marginally more of an exploiter than an explorer , standing on the shoulders of the giants who conceived the paradigm you’re striving to build upon. This is very effective when you want to align your work with oth... See more