I have realized that my perfectionism is a mask for a fragile ego.
ha, that's not exactly what I mean in this post, I hope that's not what you would take away. (although you might just be sarcastic) What leads us to perfect our work (and prevents us from shipping) is hopefully not an ego problem. It's just that we might be too eager to keep improving it, instead of enjoying the current state. It's just like the belief that adding yet another feature to an app will solve everything.
Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
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Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#1299% of the perfectionists I have had the misfortune to work with are just slow or out of their depth and are using the term as an emotional crutch. How much nicer it is to tell yourself that you are a perfectionist than you are just not very good at whatever you are doing. The people that turn out near perfect work are usually the fastest and just get things done. It is a pity they are so rare.
> How much nicer it is to tell yourself that you are a perfectionist than you are just not very good at whatever you are doing.
By that logic, Steve Jobs should have never been good at what he was doing...
I'm sorry, but this notion of yours is kinda insulting to all the perfectionists that had the misfortune of living in a world that doesn't appreciate them.
Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#1399% of the perfectionists I have had the misfortune to work with are just slow or out of their depth and are using the term as an emotional crutch. How much nicer it is to tell yourself that you are a perfectionist than you are just not very good at whatever you are doing. The people that turn out near perfect work are usually the fastest and just get things done. It is a pity they are so rare.
Producing perfect work has nothing to do with perfectionism.
That is certainly true.
Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#1499% of the perfectionists I have had the misfortune to work with are just slow or out of their depth and are using the term as an emotional crutch. How much nicer it is to tell yourself that you are a perfectionist than you are just not very good at whatever you are doing. The people that turn out near perfect work are usually the fastest and just get things done. It is a pity they are so rare.
> How much nicer it is to tell yourself that you are a perfectionist than you are just not very good at whatever you are doing. By that logic, Steve Jobs should have never been good at what he was doing... I'm sorry, but this notion of yours is kinda insulting to all the perfectionists that had the misfortune of living in a world that doesn't appreciate them.
While it is debatable if Steve Jobs was a perfectionist, even if he were all it would mean is he is one of the 1%.
It is more of a rant caused by me having to wait for the perfectionists to finish their third rate work so I can get on with mine :)
Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How much nicer it is to tell yourself that you are a perfectionist than you are just not very good at whatever you are doing. By that logic, Steve Jobs should have never been good at what he was doing... I'm sorry, but this notion of yours is kinda insulting to all the perfectionists that had the misfortune of living in a world that doesn't appreciate them.
While it is debatable if Steve Jobs was a perfectionist, even if he were all it would mean is he is one of the 1%. It is more of a rant caused by me having to wait for the perfectionists to finish their third rate work so I can get on with mine :)
I'm not even sure Steve Jobs claimed to be a perfectionist. "Doing great work" might be more how he would have phrased it, as well as iterating on it.
Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#16I think there is a very thin line between perfectionism and being insecure. For instance, a person with ADHD is prone to doing a lot of errors and overlooking obvious issues. One coping mechanism is to triple check whatever you do. Some people may have developed this strategy early on in their childhood and never realized.
Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#17I'm really skeptical of this attitude. In a lot of fields I've seen people who commit themselves to "just getting it done." The result is that they do get a lot of work done: and it's bad, it's mediocre, it doesn't have value. On the other hand, one can easily think of creators who spent a long time on one work (maybe "too much" time), and the result was work of lasting value.
Of course, this relates more to artistic work than technical matters. But I think it is damaging to act as if all work is equivalent to deadlined development work. Great things come from people being impractical.
Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#18I think there is a very thin line between perfectionism and being insecure. For instance, a person with ADHD is prone to doing a lot of errors and overlooking obvious issues. One coping mechanism is to triple check whatever you do. Some people may have developed this strategy early on in their childhood and never realized.
Triple checking is fine to me. I do it plenty of times. But it certainly depends on how long this would require and what it is spent on.
For instance, I re-read my posts several times before publishing (and still wondering if I left typos). But for the design, I'm happy to leave things as a work in progress, knowing I will come back to it later.
It's all about choosing your battles.
Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#19Re: Being a perfectionist is an obstacle and how to beat it
#20I'm really skeptical of this attitude. In a lot of fields I've seen people who commit themselves to "just getting it done." The result is that they do get a lot of work done: and it's bad, it's mediocre, it doesn't have value. On the other hand, one can easily think of creators who spent a long time on one work (maybe "too much" time), and the result was work of lasting value. Of course, this relates more to artistic…
> Great things come from people being impractical
Yes, but in my experience this is more an exception, compared to the vast majority of people who never ship anything, because "it's not quite right yet". That's where the danger lies.
And I think there are plenty of similarities between art and tech, regarding this.
For a web app, it will have to be shared before growing in quality and becoming great. Github, Basecamp, Twitter all did that. It's always about having a first released being a kick ass half or a half ass product (Getting Real was phrasing it like that if I recall correctly).
Same for a film. It might be released on a specific date to a wide audience, but it has gone through many iterations, discussed between dozens of people.
And just getting it done does not mean that you have to stop everything once your deadline has passed. If there is more work that you want to add to improve it, do it. But at least you've shared it as an intermediary stage, and you and your work have probably both grown from that. And you can now give yourself another deadline.