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Progress Beats Perfect

muratbuffalo.blogspot.com

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Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#11

Post by zelphirkalt »

taf2 wrote: post #4

Best thing my first boss ever told me and I find my self repeating to my self all the time - “perfection is the enemy of good”

Loads of people are on quickfire mode, judging every little "but we could do better" as "perfect" and throwing out that phrase. It is really annoying. When you want to invest a little more time, because you already know, what problems will bite you in your behind later, and then you hear that phrase.

Whoever outputs that phrase should first think about whether they are stopping improvement, by labelling it as "perfect", to make it match this pseudo-wise phrase.

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#13

Post by sneak »

drunkonvinyl wrote: post #5
nkozyra wrote: post #3

This is all a big problem with unrealistic expectations. > If I get one percent better each day for one year, I'll end up thirty-seven times better by the end of the year. This, too, is an unrealistic expectation. To get better every day (or even most days!) is very hard to do and can put you on the defensive as much as the quest for perfection.

To me, the spirit of this 1% better every day is to have at least tried to be better. That alone counts as or at least towards the 1%. It’s not something you literally measure, but just aiming for. 1% of a day could be as much as changing a thought pattern. It could be not drinking that Coke Zero today - note to self. It could be not letting the full trash can in the bathroom spill over. It’s more about the intention…

What's wrong with Coke Zero?

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#14

Post by runawaybottle »

Hate to quote the psychopath The Joker from the Dark Knight, but when he was talking to Harvey Dent in the hospital he said ‘it’s all about fear’ (roughly).

If you don’t understand the motivation for progress then all the symptoms of procrastination kick in.

I’m not super content in my job and it gives me anxiety. It’s like being in a foxhole that you feel unsafe in. Therefore, to achieve peace, I have to either find another foxhole or make it so I can find safety.

That’s decent enough motivation for now. One day I hope I can be driven by something happier.

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#15

Post by mariocesar »

I honestly read "Postgres beat perfect" and imagine an article about just using PostgreSQL for all your early features. Features like Full-text search, Documented DB, distributed tasks running, etc., and not worrying about scale and always know that is better to have it ready for customers than keep them waiting for the best tool for the work

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#16

Post by dfxm12 »

drunkonvinyl wrote: post #5
nkozyra wrote: post #3

This is all a big problem with unrealistic expectations. > If I get one percent better each day for one year, I'll end up thirty-seven times better by the end of the year. This, too, is an unrealistic expectation. To get better every day (or even most days!) is very hard to do and can put you on the defensive as much as the quest for perfection.

To me, the spirit of this 1% better every day is to have at least tried to be better. That alone counts as or at least towards the 1%. It’s not something you literally measure, but just aiming for. 1% of a day could be as much as changing a thought pattern. It could be not drinking that Coke Zero today - note to self. It could be not letting the full trash can in the bathroom spill over. It’s more about the intention…

It's really both intention and action. Intending to take out the trash is meaningless if it's already spilled over. We need more than beliefs to make progress.

I believe OP is talking about both going at your own realistic pace (whatever that means for you), and also actually going.

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#17

Post by taf2 »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #11
taf2 wrote: post #4

Best thing my first boss ever told me and I find my self repeating to my self all the time - “perfection is the enemy of good”

Loads of people are on quickfire mode, judging every little "but we could do better" as "perfect" and throwing out that phrase. It is really annoying. When you want to invest a little more time, because you already know, what problems will bite you in your behind later, and then you hear that phrase. Whoever outputs that phrase should first think about whether they are stopping improvement, by labelling it as "perfec…

I hear ya it’s not really something I want to tell people or be told more it’s a great thing to tell yourself to enable you to sometimes push past a very hard problem…. Like ok big picture I could keep optimizing this sort routine or I could deliver the stats to the end user tomorrow by just finishing the table UI to show a number… I totally agree with you it’s just more of a tool you can use to help yourself push on and not get consumed by a detail that may or may not matter… it’s like this is the art side of programming that isn’t always obvious- is it important to get this detail right or can we get it good enough… sometimes it’s important sometimes it’s not

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#18

Post by reidjs »

pdimitar wrote: post #9
drunkonvinyl wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the spirit of this 1% better every day is to have at least tried to be better. That alone counts as or at least towards the 1%. It’s not something you literally measure, but just aiming for. 1% of a day could be as much as changing a thought pattern. It could be not drinking that Coke Zero today - note to self. It could be not letting the full trash can in the bathroom spill over. It’s more about the intention…

Agreed, but it also has to be noted that this intention, if you remind yourself of it constantly, can fill you with dread add unwillingness which can grow to be a huge self-imposed psychic block. I want to be better but I've dropped the "every day" trope. That's a meaningless and toxic hustling that only works when you are in your 20s. Progress is not linear. We are not machines. Even a machine can't make a linear pr…

Adding to this, it’s hard to know if you are actually getting “better” because it’s so hard to measure. My approach is to try to get better between reflection periods while also scheduling days for self reflection on that goal.

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#19

Post by pdimitar »

reidjs wrote: post #18
pdimitar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, but it also has to be noted that this intention, if you remind yourself of it constantly, can fill you with dread add unwillingness which can grow to be a huge self-imposed psychic block. I want to be better but I've dropped the "every day" trope. That's a meaningless and toxic hustling that only works when you are in your 20s. Progress is not linear. We are not machines. Even a machine can't make a linear pr…

Adding to this, it’s hard to know if you are actually getting “better” because it’s so hard to measure. My approach is to try to get better between reflection periods while also scheduling days for self reflection on that goal.

I am 50/50 on if a conscious self-reflection will give you the birds-eye view. For some it might work, for me it doesn't.

Meditation definitely achieves that for me however.

Re: Progress Beats Perfect

#20

Post by zokier »

nkozyra wrote: post #3

This is all a big problem with unrealistic expectations. > If I get one percent better each day for one year, I'll end up thirty-seven times better by the end of the year. This, too, is an unrealistic expectation. To get better every day (or even most days!) is very hard to do and can put you on the defensive as much as the quest for perfection.

> This, too, is an unrealistic expectation. To get better every day (or even most days!) is very hard to do and can put you on the defensive as much as the quest for perfection

Not just getting better every day (which already is very hard) but getting exponentially better every day! That is just plain ludicrous idea.

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