A trick to getting honest critique from friends and family

I find it really interesting to take two photos and ask friends / family which they like better and why. Photos I throw out because of technical problems or distractions, etc are sometimes overwhelmingly the favorites of my non-photographer viewers. I've learned a lot from those kinds of discussions. It's a great way to find your weak spots as far as composition goes. The secret is to present photos in two's so that your friends / family can more easily give critique -they can say something bad about one by saying what's better about the other ;-). That usually breaks the critique ice and can get a real discussion going that's more likely to lead to better insights.