An interesting thing one person telling another person what they are worth. Something we all tell each other to be assertive against: only you know how much you are worth, we are all special, so on. Something we so quickly accept when an authority figure, literal or imagined, takes the opportunity to rate us based on some established system of weak? prior consent. Obviously I have some bitter feelings about this.
First of all, let me say that I am all for criticism. I can take it, I can dish it, it's how we all get better at what we do. What kills me is the whole fuzziness of subjectivity v objectivity. My blue is your green is his red. The problem is when concreteness is removed I think we tend to do two things that contradict each other: one, we rationalize, and two, we exaggerate. I may be told I was "good" at something, which is a total objective, bull-****, waste of time statement, and rationalize that I had done something well when I had only just done it well enough. On the other hand, I might exaggerate that I had done it terribly since I had not completed whatever task "excellently." Neither course sheds any light on the original evaluator's intended meaning.
How helpful is this system? Essentially it creates a feeling of accomplishment or failure in the reviewed, largely regardless of the original intent of the reviewer. Why do we insist on doing it? Somehow we are obviously convincing ourselves that it is useful.
