As a video game fanatic, I need the latest and greatest console. But I also need the latest and greatest TV to be up to par with the processing power of the console. I want to make sure every pixel of the TV is optimized for my gaming. I finally have the optimum setup, with the console, TV and games working in concert to make my gaming experience as immersive as possible, so I can completely ignore my family and responsibilities.

As a trade-off for the fancy TV, my wife insisted that with the fancy TV, we needed to get a soundbar. I was pretty bummed about that, but I relented. I set up the sound system and I thought we were good to go. But after months of just average sound, we started to notice that something was off. The bar was working, but the big bass speaker wasn’t. We checked all the connections, and it looked like the power was working, so we just resigned ourselves to thinking the speaker sucked.

Then one day I decided to fool around with the remote. I hit the volume button on the bass, and it went up from zero to +6. All of a sudden, we were hearing our big speaker for the first time. Even the horrible Hallmark movie background music had some impressive bass. You can imagine that movies and video games that I actually cared about and were designed for good sounds were mind-blowingly better.

The feedback was amazing, and I started hearing things that we couldn’t possibly imagine. I could actually hear my parents tell me that I wasn’t a failure. I could hear my daughter’s eye roll from 500 yards away. I could hear my son’s excuses for not being home on time, before he even got home. I even heard them say of course I’ll do that for you, father.

As great as it was to have all that processing power on the video game console, and the amazing pixel perfect imagery on the TV, it was nothing without the feedback I got from the soundbar.

It makes you understand how important gold stars are.

People need gold stars to understand if what they do is any good.

I could spend my whole life writing the perfect blog post, starting with an attention-grabbing title and intro, transition to spitting facts like Eminem blazing his way through Rap God, sprinkle in some perfectly placed dad jokes, a dash of bitter witicisms, then add an inspirational story, and wrap up a perfect ending like Santa’s elves rap up Christmas presents, but without feedback, I wouldn’t know if the post was any good.

It’s easy to see why people quit things. I will write Bitter posts until the end of time, even if no one ever reads them, because I think about things that make me bitter 25 hours a day. But there are millions of bloggers that quit blogging because they don’t think about their blogs 25 hours a day, and nobody gives them any feedback. No likes, follows, shares and worst of all, no comments.

I might be fine without feedback on my bitter posts, but when the feedback dries up on social, I’m out. It’s why I stopped doing anything on Facebook, and why I’ve stopped caring about posting on Instagram and Twitter. I only use Snapchat and Tik Tok to watch other people do dumb things. I’ve had some great ideas for Tik Tok, but then I would go to all the effort of posting then, they would go non-viral and I would just give up on that too. Just think about Taylor Swift. Even she would give up on music and become a telemarketer to pay the bills if she was playing to empty stadiums.

You go where your feedback is. Where your gold stars are. If you don’t get any gold stars, you “star”-t somewhere else. A new job, a new platform, a new family. My suggestion: If you appreciate what someone is doing, let them know. You don’t have to pay them, just give them a gold star. A like. A follow. A share. A comment. Even if it’s a bitter comment. Something as little as a gold star can mean the moon or the sun to someone. And help them realize that all their hard work isn’t for nothing. You’re welcome for that double negative.

Speaking of double negatives, shall we finally get to the Bitter Friday Giftures? I think so…

The reason why they call game consoles consoles…

Once I got my high-end console…

When I asked for the perfect TV for the console…

As long as I got…

Which didn’t fully work…

Once I figured out the sound, I started hearing things I’d never heard before…

Or other things from my kids…

It made me realize how important feedback is…

Or when I try to do…

But giving people Gold Stars…

Just remember that if you stop giving people gold stars…

And you may miss out…

Just like the speakers on my TV, if you don’t get any feedback, you’re not going to know if you are any good. Or any bad. So if you have feedback, good or bad, let someone know. It will let them know how bitter you are, and they might continue to be bitter.

ARRRGGGGHHHHHHH

Bitter Feedback Gold Star Ben