I think the tendency to write unconstructive criticisms (at least for me) comes from the combination of:
I have a strong urge to comment on anything that looks incorrect
Writing substantive criticisms of a post (often) requires grokking the whole post and thinking deeply about it, which is hard. Criticizing some specific sentence is easy because my brain instantly surfaces the criticism when I read the sentence
I think it is admirable to strive for that. I also notice the tendency within myself to be uselessly nitpicky with well actually. Recurse Center’s social rules have provided some small inspiration for me: https://www.recurse.com/social-rules
I think the tendency to write unconstructive criticisms (at least for me) comes from the combination of:
I have a strong urge to comment on anything that looks incorrect
Writing substantive criticisms of a post (often) requires grokking the whole post and thinking deeply about it, which is hard. Criticizing some specific sentence is easy because my brain instantly surfaces the criticism when I read the sentence
I think it is admirable to strive for that. I also notice the tendency within myself to be uselessly nitpicky with well actually. Recurse Center’s social rules have provided some small inspiration for me: https://www.recurse.com/social-rules
I was just about to reply mentioning well actually as well! Strong +1 on this