I love how simple, yet powerfully you write.

keep up the great work!

@Trina: You’ve brought up a great point … if you noticed some of the comments under my guest post at Consumerism Commentary, and especially the Lifehack.org Firefox OS post, there are some extremely negative things said about me and my articles (including but not limited to: I hope you never reproduce; The author is a moron; This guy is an idiot). However, in response, I have several choices:

1) I can respond with similar negativity, and thereby increase the animosity between myself and the commenter, and the general community. This has the unfortunate side effects of making me feel really angry and negative, and making me look bad in front of everyone else. People tend to judge negative people in a bad light.

2) I can ignore the comments, which is a valid option but allows them to go unanswered, which isn’t always the best choice if others don’t know that the comments are in error.

3) I can answer the comments but remain positive. This is the choice I try to take in all cases. If a commenter thinks I’m a moron, well, I probably won’t be able to change his mind. But if he makes an erroneous point, I should clarify it, while thanking him for the opportunity to clarify my article. The benefits of this include: a) you clarify an erroneous comment; b) you look like a positive person to the community; c) you don’t get sucked into negative feelings; and d) sometimes you can actually win people over by remaining positive in your interactions with them. This has happened to me several times, and I’ve even developed good relationships with people this way.

As a side note, I couldn’t resist sending a personal note to the commenter who hopes that I cannot reproduce — I informed him that, in actuality, I can no longer reproduce because of an operation. I just wanted to make him happy, and thanked him for his contribution.

This philosophy of remaining positive, even under attack, applies to all parts of life, not just in responding to comments. I’ve used it in my everyday dealings with people. It takes two to argue, and even if the person refuses to rise to your level, that’s his problem, not yours.

Maybe I should write a post about this? Or maybe I just have. :)

Thanks, Trina. – leo