Check the fulfilment, not just the metrics
Repeatedly doubling down on whatever others react to turns you into a 'caricature of yourself' and drives burnout — you end up making things you aren't fulfilled by. And you can't satisfy everyone's contradictory feedback anyway, so check whether the work still fulfills you, not just whether it performs.
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Optimizing output purely for external reaction collapses the self into the few traits that get reactions, producing an unfulfilling feedback loop: you do a thing, people respond to certain aspects, so you double down on those — and eventually you tire of your own work and are making things you aren’t fulfilled by, a caricature of yourself. The counter-move is to notice when you’re ‘doubling down on what people react to’ and check whether the work still fulfills you, not just whether it performs.
This is reinforced by a hard limit on people-pleasing: with many conflicting voices and opinions, satisfying everyone is mathematically impossible, so chasing it yields self-erasure rather than approval. Accept up front that you cannot please everyone, and decide based on your own values instead of trying to correct everything others call ‘wrong’.
