"The pursuit of approval usually ends in disaster"
About this Quote
Chris Morris’s line lands like a warning label slapped onto the glossy packaging of “likeability.” Coming from a critic, it reads less as self-help and more as occupational hazard: the moment you start writing to be applauded, you stop seeing clearly. Approval is a crowd-sourced narcotic. It dulls judgment, rounds off sharp edges, and teaches you to anticipate the room’s mood instead of testing it.
The intent is blunt: approval is not a neutral reward; it’s a steering mechanism. Morris is pointing at the way audiences, editors, peers, and institutions quietly train people to trade honesty for safety. The subtext is that “disaster” isn’t always a public scandal. It can be the slower catastrophe of becoming predictable, of losing the nerve to be specific, to name what’s actually happening, to risk being disliked. In criticism, that’s fatal: your authority is built on independence, and approval is the easiest leash to miss.
There’s also a cynicism about the marketplace of attention. Approval today isn’t just praise; it’s metrics, virality, career insurance. Chasing it invites a kind of moral outsourcing: you let the crowd decide what you’re allowed to think, then call the result “taste” or “professionalism.” Morris implies that the honest work is to tolerate disapproval long enough to say something true.
It works because it refuses the comforting fiction that good intentions protect you. Wanting to be liked feels harmless; Morris suggests it’s the first step in self-betrayal.
The intent is blunt: approval is not a neutral reward; it’s a steering mechanism. Morris is pointing at the way audiences, editors, peers, and institutions quietly train people to trade honesty for safety. The subtext is that “disaster” isn’t always a public scandal. It can be the slower catastrophe of becoming predictable, of losing the nerve to be specific, to name what’s actually happening, to risk being disliked. In criticism, that’s fatal: your authority is built on independence, and approval is the easiest leash to miss.
There’s also a cynicism about the marketplace of attention. Approval today isn’t just praise; it’s metrics, virality, career insurance. Chasing it invites a kind of moral outsourcing: you let the crowd decide what you’re allowed to think, then call the result “taste” or “professionalism.” Morris implies that the honest work is to tolerate disapproval long enough to say something true.
It works because it refuses the comforting fiction that good intentions protect you. Wanting to be liked feels harmless; Morris suggests it’s the first step in self-betrayal.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Love |
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