I am Struggling with this from a long time and it has made my life hell.
Would like to know what strategies you used to overcome it?
Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
1–10 of 134 posts
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#2The mantra, "A timely wrong decision is often better than no decision," has been helpful in my life.
(my own adaptation of Kelly Johnson's statement here: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/97803-skunk-works (search for "wrong decision") )
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#3I think anyone asking this question really doesn't need advice from imperfect posters like myself.
Nonetheless, maybe realizing that "perfectionism" is a misnomer, since it doesn't optimize resource use for resolution of the problem? Maybe realizing that you are being inefficient, wasteful, and taking comfort in simple polishing, rather than looking for a true solution?
In other words, "perfectionism" for me was always a way to be lazy and take comfort in a false sense of doing a better job.
As Newton would put it - A lazy person in motion, remains in motion, and a force of will is needed to re-assess and pivot.
A common misconception is that working hard is hard. I find that to be completely false. I can lift weights to exhaustion, polish a car hood to exhaustion and get every little spec out, work on code I perfectly understand endlessly, etc. It's much more difficult to actually observe, pivot, and do the right amount.
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#4The mantra, "A timely wrong decision is often better than no decision," has been helpful in my life. (my own adaptation of Kelly Johnson's statement here: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/97803-skunk-works (search for "wrong decision") )
how about the iraq war. that was timely and costly wrong decision
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#5The mantra, "A timely wrong decision is often better than no decision," has been helpful in my life. (my own adaptation of Kelly Johnson's statement here: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/97803-skunk-works (search for "wrong decision") )
how about the iraq war. that was timely and costly wrong decision
It doesn’t say “always”.
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#6The mantra, "A timely wrong decision is often better than no decision," has been helpful in my life. (my own adaptation of Kelly Johnson's statement here: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/97803-skunk-works (search for "wrong decision") )
how about the iraq war. that was timely and costly wrong decision
That's a bit disingenuous. Individual decisions != policy decisions. No government struggles with 'perfectionism'
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#7Realizing there is no "perfect" helps. If you realize you'll never get there then you start to realize the diminishing returns the closer you try to approach.
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#8The mantra, "A timely wrong decision is often better than no decision," has been helpful in my life. (my own adaptation of Kelly Johnson's statement here: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/97803-skunk-works (search for "wrong decision") )
how about the iraq war. that was timely and costly wrong decision
If you are going to poke, does that mean you consider there to be a perfect war?
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#9I would say the biggest thing that helps me deal with perfectionism in my job is to ask for help once I realize it's blocking me.
Usually the help is very simple, like "help me break down this larger ticket into smaller tasks". It might only take them 15 minutes to do this, and feel like you're wasting everyone's time, but getting past the blocker is more important ultimately.
Re: Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?
#10Whenever I start caring too much about something, I pull up the "pale blue dot" image (https://funnyjunk.com/The+pale+blue+dot/funny-pictures/52789...) and remember that I will die long before Voyager will make it even 10% to the next star. All of humanity, including us, is just a tiny speck in an unimaginably vast and uncaring universe. Some people find that terribly upsetting, but to me it also means freedom because nothing matters very much anyway.
So when you feel perfectionism exerting its insidious pull on you, zoom out and remember that "it is not that important".