Place a pebble at the top of the stream, not a boulder at the bottom.

Feedback is like circumcision. The earlier you do it, the better.

Waiting too long makes the procedure more painful, increases your likelihood of complications and leads to some very awkward first date conversations.

Because timing isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

Now, wisdom like this is more than just foreskin deep. This principle has practical application to the creative process.

Think back to your last three jobs.

Have you ever worked with people who gave specific, actionable feedback, far too late in the process?

It’s very frustrating when you’re the one doing the creating and they’re the ones doing the criticizing. At my tech startup job as head of content, I used to receive private messages from the same couple of people within an hour of publishing anything. They loved giving me feedback on how the work could have been structured, worded, designed, tilted and promoted differently.

And my reaction was always, wow, thanks for reading, thanks for offering to help me improve the work, but this information would have been far more useful to me a week ago. Or even a month ago. Where the hell were you back then?

That’s the thing about feedback. Being critical expose facto doesn’t help, it actually makes things worse. Because it only creates resentment on both sides of the labor.

The criticizer gets mad because the final output didn’t meet their standards. As if to say, hey, why didn’t you do this my way?

Then the creative person gets pissed because it’s easy to tear something down when you’re not the one with dirt on your hands. As if to say, dude, if your feedback is so brilliant, then why don’t you pick up a hammer and actually make something yourself?

It’s one thing if a person has ideas for changing the overall process on a go forward basis. But the further downstream you get, the more noise will be introduced into the system, and the less likely the feedback will be to take root.

It makes me think of my friend who works for the army corps of engineers. He says if you want to redirect the current, place a pebble at the top of the stream, not a boulder at the bottom.

Earlier is better. Say what you need to say sooner than you think you need to. Nip problems in the bud.

Not only with creative projects, but with creative people. Don’t wait until the official monthly or quarterly performance review to evaluate their work.

Give them feedback in real time. Course correct at the top of the stream. Everything will flow better as a result.

Ask any man who’s been circumcised as an adult. The earlier you do it, the better.

Is your criticism less useful because of its timing?