Spaw - going back to your first post, I agree with what you said, but I'm not sure that it is that same as what MMario was asking. Correct me if I'm in err here, but you mean that you think you actually did the best you could, but verbally will depreciate the actions/outcome to others due to our society's norms? I believe what MMario is asking is when you do your best, do you still see the errors that others miss or neglect to mention.

MMario - yes, I know for myself what you say is true. On anything that I create, no matter how blueprint perfect, I always see places where I could have done it differently/made it better. And somehow those things seem to become the focal points for me. Other people look at it and see the beautiful finished (dulcimer, jewelry box, computer program, song, whatever).
Over the years I've come to adopt what is probably an unhealthy attitude toward audience/criticisers. And that is that I discount or ignore any comments on something unless that person is an expert in that field. I've built a couple lap dulcimers that I've had plenty of people ooh and ahh over, to which my reaction was always, "Yeah, right. Thanx." Until a luthier looked it over and gave me his opinions on it. Those opinions I valued.

I don't mean to come off sounding like the general populace's opinions don't matter - they do, for each person. And if your audience is happy with your performance then you should be happy with it too. But for (constructive) criticism I usually value only an expert's opinion, because mine is usually too harsh.