1 min lesson
Quantify the polish
Use "Vague praise of your own work is worthless to a reviewer" to say what you would do next.
Step 1 of 3
Quantify the polish
Vague praise of your own work is worthless to a reviewer. Replace "smooth" or "clean" with the lever, target and reason: "I tuned spring damping to ~0.7 so the motion settles without a visible bounce," or "I limited animation to transform and opacity to hold 60fps on a mid-tier laptop."
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Advanced table
Numbers and named techniques turn a claim into evidence
- Vague (reads as luck)
- “I made the transition smooth.”
- Specific (reads as craft)
- “I tuned the spring to ~0.7 damping so it settles without a visible bounce on a 120ms move.”
- Vague (reads as luck)
- “The spacing feels clean.”
- Specific (reads as craft)
- “I used a 4px base scale and optically nudged the icon 1px up because it sat heavy against the cap height.”
- Vague (reads as luck)
- “It performs well.”
- Specific (reads as craft)
- “I animated only transform and opacity to stay on the compositor and hold 60fps on a mid-tier laptop.”
- Vague (reads as luck)
- “The dark mode looks good.”
- Specific (reads as craft)
- “I raised the surface to a near-black, not pure black, so elevation shadows still read.”
| Vague (reads as luck) | Specific (reads as craft) |
|---|---|
| “I made the transition smooth.” | “I tuned the spring to ~0.7 damping so it settles without a visible bounce on a 120ms move.” |
| “The spacing feels clean.” | “I used a 4px base scale and optically nudged the icon 1px up because it sat heavy against the cap height.” |
| “It performs well.” | “I animated only transform and opacity to stay on the compositor and hold 60fps on a mid-tier laptop.” |
| “The dark mode looks good.” | “I raised the surface to a near-black, not pure black, so elevation shadows still read.” |
Numbers and named techniques turn a claim into evidence.
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Optional practice
Practice: Quantify the polish
QWhy is “I tuned this spring to ~0.7 damping so it settles without a bounce” a stronger thing to say than “I made the animation smooth”?