&gt;Your interpretation is overly literal, IMO.<p>I did not give an interpretation. I asked a question. I don&#x27;t think a description of what it means to remember you are talking to a person was given even though it was claimed that one should do it. If I should be doing it, I need to know what it is. Then, I can see if I am actually doing it, and if I am not, start doing it again. I think it is an entirely reasonable question.<p>&gt;In the context of giving critical feedback, it&#x27;s easy to focus on the problem, the specific area you want to correct, and reduce the person on the other side to just being the cause of the problem.<p>Certainly. People are generally not the causes of problems, so looking there is probably a waste of time. I think the far more effective strategy is working to eliminate the problem and modify processes to ensure that the problem never happens again. Any problem, in a corporate context, is a failing of the entire team, not any individual.<p>&gt;It&#x27;s easy to forget that the developer is a person with a lifetime of experiences different from yours, a different perspective, different strengths and weaknesses, different insecurities, different stuff going on in their personal life.<p>Maybe our difference is on how easy this is. I don&#x27;t think that is very easy to forget. All you need to do is realize that you are a person with all of those things and that you are not that other person.<p>&gt;I haven&#x27;t been on the receiving end myself, but I have often seen managers give feedback that is belittling and reduces the entire worth of a person to a single mistake.<p>I think it&#x27;s a rampant problem. I guess people just want to blame others rather than make things better? I seem to detect instances of it all the time, that seem to be casually accepted by most. For example, General Motor&#x27;s response to a faulty piece of equipment they were using in their cars was to fire the engineer who designed it. Almost no mind was paid to the fact that GM&#x27;s process allowed critical parts to be wholly designed and signed off on by a single individual.