Week 3: Specificity and falsifiability

The two properties that make a note different from an opinion, and how to tell whether your own note has either of them.

8 March 2027

Specificity means the note points at a location: a sentence, a line, a region of a canvas, a function. “The pacing drags” isn’t specific; “the scene starting at the second paragraph on page four repeats information the reader already has” is. The test is mechanical — can the person you gave the note to point at the exact thing you meant, without asking you — and it’s the fastest way to catch a note that’s actually a mood wearing the grammar of an observation.

Falsifiability means the note says what would prove it wrong. “This character is unconvincing” survives any response, because nothing was ever staked. “This character makes a choice on page four that nothing earlier in the piece motivates” is wrong the moment someone points to the motivating line on page two — and that’s the point. A note you can’t lose an argument about was never really a claim.

Neither property is about tone. A note can be gentle and still specific; it can be blunt and still unfalsifiable. This week’s crit is the first time the room tests both against a piece of visual work, where the temptation to retreat into “it’s just not working for me” is strongest.

Outline#

• specificity: does the note point at a location, or at the whole piece
• falsifiability: does the note say what would change its own mind
• why “I don’t like it” fails both tests at once, and why that’s not the same as it being untrue