On Critics and Criticism

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A while back I wrote a series of what I called investor's diaries regarding the JNUG junior gold mining ETF. I won't go into the whole theory behind them, but the investment idea or thesis was that the price of JNUG seemed to be trading in a fairly regular cycle.

They cycle part of the idea I studied for a number of months and believed I had a pretty solid grip on. However, over the course of making the investment and writing about it I came to realize I had made a series of mistakes. You can read more about the mistakes in the diaries.

Of course mistakes are one of the ways we all learn. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that's the way I learn a good many things. I also tend to sort through my thoughts by writing about them. It's one of the ways I learn.

I understand that when you write something and put it out into the world, there is going to be criticism. It is often a healthy thing. It is interesting to find out what people disagree about and see things through another perspective.

The issue recently was when the criticism of one particular individual was used with malicious intent. It's pretty easy to find something wrong with many things that are written. It's easier still when the writing is of a personal nature about mistakes that were made.

It's not easy writing about mistakes. I suppose many people refrain for writing about their own mistakes in order to maintain the idea that either they don't make them, or their mistakes are minor in nature.

In a way writing about mistakes is the mirror opposite of the case study. Most case studies you read are pictures of perfection. They present a problem and solution for the problem that go off without a hitch. They are idealized presentations of a process that more than likely was a little bit painful and messy.

So, writing about mistakes is a bit painful and messy. Human beings often don't want to admit to mistakes. Even less, people don't want to make their mistakes public. On the other hand, sharing those mistakes can help other people learn from them, hopefully without having to repeat them and suffer the consequences.

But, back to the critic and criticism. One particular person decided to use the diaries and bad investment decision as a hammer whenever we had a disagreement. The error was dragged into conversations deliberately - I suppose either to embarrass me or in an effort to provoke me to anger.

It was, in fact, a bit irritating. The funny thing is, I was making the attempt to get along with this person, but he couldn't seem to let go of whatever he thought the dispute was. His actions taught me something though - he isn't the kind of person I want to be associated with. It's one thing to criticize. It's another to abuse the role of criticism and the critic by using it to tear down another person.

I have found over the years that some people believe they can only build themselves up by tearing others down. It never has made much sense to me. I can't become more by making someone else less. All I can do is try to learn from my mistakes and attempt to become a better version of myself.

Postscript: I forgot to link to a video by Chris Moody who posts frequently at TradingView. The title is How I Lost 18K...By Simply Being Lazy. I have to say a few things about the video. First, it's very courageous of Chris to post the video and reveal the very simple mistake to the world. Second, it's incredibly generous of him to share his mistake so others can learn from it. Third, Chris is very generous sharing his knowledge over at TradingView and I have learned a lot from him, but there is so much more to learn. I hate to admit it but seeing the size of his mistake and the simple error made me feel a little better about my JNUG mistakes. We all make mistakes. It isn't the mistakes that define us, but how we react to them that shows us what kind of people we are. By that definition, the quality of Chris as a person shines through.