Creating vs. Critiquing

Engineering Echelons

Collin P. Wheeler
July 04, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Hey, it’s Collin. Welcome to Engineering Echelons, a newsletter full of ideas and insights to help engineers excel at management.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week.

New and noteworthy news
A management perspective to consider
Leadership insights to delve into
And more…

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Alright, let’s get into it.

Noteworthy Headlines

Hiring rate, job openings remain historically low (Construction Dive)

Highlights:

May 2025 had about 35% fewer open positions than May 2024.
In general, hiring rates are low, layoff rates are low, and there are fewer openings

Construction spending continued to decline in May (ENR)

Highlights:

Year-over-year construction spending declined by 3.5%.

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Management Perspective

There’s an asymmetry when it comes to creating versus critiquing. By that, I mean critiquing is more prevalent than creating. Social media is full of reaction and review videos, and message boards contain vast threads of critiques. This behavior is widespread in the business world as well.

Being a critic is easy. And it tends to make you look smart. Both are alluring reasons to behave that way. But being judgmental just for the sake of it isn’t helpful.

One of my favorite examples of a critic coming to terms with their role versus that of the people they are critiquing is in the Pixar film Ratatouille. In that film, the food critic says:

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over others who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

You may notice that as you move into management, you shift away from creating to critiquing. Instead of designing systems on projects, you review designs and provide comments. You check in on quality control forms and processes. And you have reviews to discuss design decisions and project management controls.

There is value here, but you must know your role. The highest purpose of a critic is to provide a feedback loop wherein desirable actions are reinforced while undesirable ones are discouraged. When you strive to be that type of critic, you help others grow.

As a final thought, and a personal self-reminder, you don’t need to have an opinion on everything.

Management Insights

Larry Tisch on prioritizing what matters:

“The most important thing is to stay focused on what matters. Most little things ultimately have no effect on an enterprise. It’s the big deals—and the big decisions that do. Don’t spend too much time on little things. The important choices and opportunities are the ones that move the dial.”

—

Charlie Munger on preparation:

“Neither Warren nor I are smart enough to make decisions with no time to think. We make actual decisions very rapidly, but that’s because we have spent so much time preparing ourselves by quietly reading.”

—

Paul Graham on decision-making:

“If you’re trying to choose between two theories and one gives you an excuse for being lazy, the other one is probably right.”

Management Resource

Cumulative vs. Cyclical Knowledge (Collaborative Fund)

In some fields, knowledge is passed down across generations. In others, it’s fleeting. This article explores why this seems to be the case.

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Looking forward to hearing from you. See you next time.

Collin

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