Surely there are those who respond to criticism better (justified or not) than others. Probably there is some continuum of response. But I suspect very few people are happy to admit ignorance - and for almost all people, it's particularly difficult to admit ignorance to someone who is really obnoxious.
The gist of things is this:
There are different modes of learning, but one of the most important goes something like this:
Observe the world
Build an internal model of how things fit together
Understand the implications of the model
Formulate hypotheses
Perform an action (which might be physical, mental, or verbal)
See what happens (measure the response)
Draw an inference about whether the action had the intended consequences
Revise the model or conduct further test of hypothesis
Briefly:
step 1. make a mistake and learn from it
step 2. repeat step until enlightenment occurs
Making mistakes - to include oversights, etc, is a natural part of learning FOR EVERYONE. But in our society (not just american society, either, as I discern a similar approach is common throughout the west) tends to vilify ignorance. Those who are percieved as naive or unworldly are either discounted or vilified.
(I'll have more to say on this later.)
k
