Here, I made this, please let me know how I can make it better. Great, I’m very happy to give honest feedback, so I did. I added a bunch of comments, questions, suggestions to help the clarify the message, the idea and sent it back.

A few days later, a response came – alongside every single comment, question, suggestion was a defence of the original text, even when I was suggesting to expand or unpack a section. Nothing in the original was changed; in fact it was made clear there was no desire to change or improve. I was shocked and saddened; it was no thesis for defending and the original requested was about how to make it better.

If you are not interested in improving, don’t feign that you are. Don’t waste people’s time who are generous enough to give you their time. Don’t waste your own time pretending you want to improve and then defending your work.

Come back when you are ready to improve and then embrace it generously, with gratitude, and dive in; the world is waiting for you.