Why is it that so many people have no idea about how to give constructive (positive) criticism?

Imagine you’ve spent a few hours designing something or writing something. Then you show someone and they say: “It’s crap.” This is negative criticism.

Consider this:

Negative criticism: “It sucks!”

Positive criticism: “If you changed the pink to blue, it would look much better.”

Sure, sometimes – but rarely – something can suck 100% and there’s nothing you can do to change that except to start over. But let’s be realistic; that’s not usually the case. When someone always sees things in a binary way – either “it’s amazing” or “it’s crap” – it’s usually indicative of an underlying problem: negativity.

If you don’t like something, try to pinpoint what it is in particular that you don’t like. It may be something quite small that is annoying you. Or it could be something quite major. Whatever the case, try and focus on how to improve it. It’s much more helpful than a blanket “it sucks”.