Listening to other people's reaction to your work can help you understand and develop your own vision, provided you don't take the comments as "truth."
Eric
That's exactly how I feel. I post my attempts at "art" here because I am interested in what others, many of whom I would regard as true artists, think of them. Sometimes I have been vaguely unhappy about an image without really knowing why and the comments I receive help me to understand why. I then stand a better chance of getting it right (or at least closer to right) next time. I don't necessarily agree with the comments people make, good or bad, but I'm still interested to hear them. A good example was Alain Briot's comments on a photo I posted here some time ago: see post 14
here (actually, the whole thread strikes me, on re-reading, as a good example of a helpful discussion).
I read reviews of concerts and TV programmes as well, if they're well-written and interesting. I don't necessarily agree with them either. Save for the extremes, there really isn't any "right" or "wrong" to a view.
De gustibus non est disputandum is as true today as it was when originally noted.
I looked at the shot which prompted this discussion when it first appeared. It's not the type of shot which really interests me (I prefer the non-human animal). I liked it and mused on whether cropping off the left would do more than merely altering it but decided I'd just keep quiet. I'm rather glad I did.
Jeremy