Contracts often contain several clauses. But what happens if one of those clauses is subsequently rendered illegal? There is often a severability clause also included to address such a situation. Severability allows for the contract to survive even if one clause does not.

One mistake I see people make is to reject a critique because they find an error in some small part of it. If they can find a flaw in any part of an argument they are content to discount the entirety of it. Don’t do that. You will throw out good feedback along with the bad and be worse off for it. Treat each part of the feedback as severable from the rest.

Or go even further and employ the steel man technique where you repair flaws you find in the critique and make it stronger before responding. Feedback is a gift. But it can be hard to hear even when it is delivered well. Don’t throw out a critique just because it isn’t perfect.