Without one color in the spectrum of light, everything looks much different. We need the range of all the colors in the spectrum to see the immense possibility of everything.
Are you an expert in something? If you aren’t, do you like giving your opinion on things? How about at your job? When someone else who is not an expert in your area comes up and gives you an opinion on your work. Can it be hard to swallow?
Or perhaps you are afraid of giving your opinion on something because you aren’t an expert in a particular area.
In either case looking at the spectrum of light as a metaphor should encourage you to both give and take feedback.
I’m not an expert at copywriting and editing. I know that I have an opinion, but there are people who are truly experts at in these fields. In fact, I work at Tribune Content Agency where we have editors who are at the top of the industry in editing. I highly respect their opinions and I’m often cautious of expressing my opinions about articles with them. But whenever I do, they are always incredibly receptive and enjoy hearing my thoughts.
As a graphic designer, I like when people respect that there is an expertise to graphic design. (and I do get that respect at work) However, just because I am an expert at graphic design doesn’t mean I can shut off and not listen to other people’s opinons about my designs. To close off someone’s opinion is to like close off one of the colors of light in the spectrum.
You know how white light is actually comprised of a whole spectrum of colors? If you were to close off one of the channels… let’s say you close off the red channel in white light. Anything that red-less light shines upon, will now all of the sudden look more cyan. All because I’m not listening to another person’s opinion.
People’s opinions are like spectrums within light. There’s a wide range of perspectives. One person cannot possibly have an entire spectrum of interpretations when looking at something. We can strive to try to be as understanding as possible, and to have an immense capacity of creativity when it comes to having an internal toolbox that can create a spectrum of understandings. But we need other people to bring these wide-ranging set of interpretations to our work.
There are millions of colors in the rainbow. There are million possibilities of looking at everything. With all this potential, we can see things more illuminated.
Having more light shed on a subject always brings greater understanding.