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It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

nytimes.com

21–30 of 135 posts

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#21
post #17
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality is local optimization, Market Fit is global optimization. As the saying goes, if you're not embarrassed by v1 you waited too long to launch.

But consider results in consumer technology: Palm versus Blackberry versus iPhone.

Quality and polish do sell in long term while even brands fade away.

So how many mechanical watches do you folks recognize? ;)

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#24

I’m reminded of a similar online NY Times piece I read, years ago, I think by a woman named Gladys, which was entirely about the harrowing process of procrastinating on, and eventually writing, the piece. All I could think was, poor Gladys. Not, here’s an authority on procrastination. Heck, I’m more of an authority on procrastination, based on my high school and college years alone, not even counting that I’ve overco…

There's a good TED talk on procrastination which might interest you: https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_mas...

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#25

I’m reminded of a similar online NY Times piece I read, years ago, I think by a woman named Gladys, which was entirely about the harrowing process of procrastinating on, and eventually writing, the piece. All I could think was, poor Gladys. Not, here’s an authority on procrastination. Heck, I’m more of an authority on procrastination, based on my high school and college years alone, not even counting that I’ve overco…

"Mediate" and "journal" are two specific solutions. The general answer is "figure out what's stopping you from getting something done and take steps to mitigate or reduce it."

That's barely a restatement of the question "how do I stop procrastinating", not an answer.

Advice like "find a way to start, and finishing will come later" is at least a substantial step forward. (But still incomplete, as it doesn't solve the problems of distraction, meandering, prioritization, time management, perfectionism)

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#26
post #17
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quality is local optimization, Market Fit is global optimization. As the saying goes, if you're not embarrassed by v1 you waited too long to launch.

But consider results in consumer technology: Palm versus Blackberry versus iPhone.

What's to consider? Palm never had the mass market engine behind it that Apple had coming from Mac; Blackberry got lazy and sat on irs laurels; Apple was the first big company with a big budget to launch a full screen high-resolution capacitive touchscreen in USA.

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#27
post #8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That worked, thanks! In Chrome, I was able to use "Site Settings" to disable JavaScript for [*.]nytimes.com for the current incognito session only. [TLDR: Voltaire was right, perfect is the enemy of good.]

"le mieux est l'ennemi du bien." is wrongly translated into "perfect is the enemy of good". The correct translation is "the better is the enemy of good". Totally different meaning IMO. I understand it as the new "better" will eventually replace the existing "good".

Do you have a citation for that? Wikipedia disagrees on the history (it's originally Italian before French: "Il meglio è l'inimico del bene"), and playing with Google Translate shows its ambiguious without context

http://go/wiki/Perfect_is_the_enemy_of_good

https://www.google.com/search?q=le+mieux+translation

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#28

I’m reminded of a similar online NY Times piece I read, years ago, I think by a woman named Gladys, which was entirely about the harrowing process of procrastinating on, and eventually writing, the piece. All I could think was, poor Gladys. Not, here’s an authority on procrastination. Heck, I’m more of an authority on procrastination, based on my high school and college years alone, not even counting that I’ve overco…

"Mediate" and "journal" are two specific solutions. The general answer is "figure out what's stopping you from getting something done and take steps to mitigate or reduce it."

I've found that I'm generally more productive and happier when I both meditate and journal, but I can't say which way causality flows

Re: It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done

#30
post #5

Steve Wozniak suggests the Apple II became successful because he's a perfectionist. He talks about throwing out almost-finished designs because he thought of a more streamlined approach while implementing the existing one. Then again, Steve Jobs has suggested that "Woz" spent so much time fiddling with Apple II hardware that he never got around to adding floating point math to Apple BASIC. (They probably should have…

Probably helps to have a combo of such personality types.

Woz: "Look we can do this better just give me some time."

Steve: "Ok fine."

-time-

Woz: "Hey we can also-"

Steve: "Damn it Woz no we need to sell a thing already!"

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