Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?

One was getting focused on the purpose of my activity. I'm writing a letter to persuade X of Y. I'm writing documentation so users know how to do Z. I'm coding a module so the system can do W, which lets users do A and B. I'm patching this drywall so my house looks nicer. Then I can subvert whatever perfectionistic impulse comes my way. Maybe what I can do in the time I have, with the knowledge and skills I have isn't perfect, but it's better than what exists now. Maybe I can't write a full manual with screenshots, but I can at least create a Help page with a few bullet points--it's now better than it was, and that is progress toward achieving the purpose I set out after.

The other was having fun. Not necessarily at work or other tasks (I do have a friend that loves doing drywall; I do not feel the same!). But I found the more fun I had in life, the less hold perfectionism had on me. If I go throw a frisbee around with a friend, it doesn't matter if not every throw is perfect. It can be kind of fun to try goofy shots on a basketball court. What if I try playing a board game with a completely different strategy than usual? I might learn something, my friends or family might tease me, I might lose. Oh well. What if I try telling jokes and they fall flat? It wouldn't be the first time! Just having fun and enjoying the moment seems to keep me from focusing on myself, and that's a big part of it.

Come to think of it, being a parent (especially of small kids, because nothing is perfect in a house with small kids--wait, and older kids, because there's no way to keep older kids thinking you're perfect) helps too. And managing people (at work, or coaching a team, or coordinating volunteers), because in the practice of tolerating imperfections in others, I learned to tolerate them in myself, too.

And as I skim this over before posting, I realize that a lot of it is being less focused on myself. Easy to say. Tougher to do. And almost impossible to do when trying it.

I first found the technique in the book The Artist's Way. Plenty of people have adopted it successfully to shut off the inner critic.

Basically the idea is you write a couple of pages every day without thinking about what you're writing. Something like stream of consciousness. If you don't know what to write just write "I don't know what to write" until something else pops up in your mind.

To help you release yourself from this line of thinking it can be helpful to imagine how you interact with other peoples code that they release. I’m guessing that most of the time you get really excited about other peoples code. Even if you have critiques or would have done it a different way. I’m guessing that the overall feelings that you have when other people release working code, either on your team or in open source, are mostly positive. Try to realize that that’s how other people receive your code as well.