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Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

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Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#11

Post by aston »

palish wrote: post #2

Like Artix, Chain would have failed in its current form no matter how smooth it was polished. It was very important that we failed fast so that we could focus on morphing it into something that works. You lose that with perfectionism. So you'd better be a Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs releases with less than perfection all the time. If you need evidence, look no further than giving AT&T an exclusive with the iPhone.

The key is accepting that people prefer products to promises, and just going ahead with something that's good enough without it being perfect.

Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#12

Post by brlewis »

nickb wrote: post #3

I notice a lot of animosity towards PG in Aaron's writings...

Aaron did know PG personally; maybe he's right. Tell you what, anybody in a YC-funded startup who, like Aaron, tires of weekly+ email exchanges with this humorless nudzh, just redirect him to me. PG can pester me about my project, and you can work undisturbed. Sound good? I'd be happy to do you that favor.

Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#14

Post by palish »

aston wrote: post #11
palish wrote: post #2

Like Artix, Chain would have failed in its current form no matter how smooth it was polished. It was very important that we failed fast so that we could focus on morphing it into something that works. You lose that with perfectionism. So you'd better be a Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs releases with less than perfection all the time. If you need evidence, look no further than giving AT&T an exclusive with the iPhone. The key is accepting that people prefer products to promises, and just going ahead with something that's good enough without it being perfect.

Being a perfectionist doesn't mean you make perfect things. However, perfectionism requires perfect taste for success.

It feels like there are two forms of design: "release early and release often" and "release it perfectly". Very few people have the taste necessary to find success in the latter.

Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#15

Post by omouse »

"There is something to this, of course. But I have a contrary proposal: users love perfectionism."

Wrong. I would love to see more new features on reddit rather than waiting for them to re-write everything. The search function is still somewhat broken!

There is even competition of sorts: http://redditmedia.com/ That site displays thumbnails for stories...why doesn't reddit.com have an extra section or option/setting for that? So many good things could be done if not for this perfectionism bullshit.

Another good story: 37signals took a long time fixing Backpack and finally released a new version. Too late, I had already switched to Simple GTD. I don't get why they didn't incrementally improve things...I bet they've lost many more users due to their slowness.

Perfectionism is paralyzing.

Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#16

Post by omouse »

palish wrote: post #2

Like Artix, Chain would have failed in its current form no matter how smooth it was polished. It was very important that we failed fast so that we could focus on morphing it into something that works. You lose that with perfectionism. So you'd better be a Steve Jobs.

Don't you dare say Chain is failing. I'm still using the site!

Just make it look a tiny bit nicer, get a few mentions on various blogs and you'll be fine. A PayPal donate link may help too?

Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#17

Post by champion »

Funny, since Aaron had exactly the opposite strategy when he launched Infogami, blogging about launching a new feature everyday and taking a very incremental approach. I don't think that lasted very long though. Everyone is free to change their mind, of course...

Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#18

Post by palish »

omouse wrote: post #16
palish wrote: post #2

Like Artix, Chain would have failed in its current form no matter how smooth it was polished. It was very important that we failed fast so that we could focus on morphing it into something that works. You lose that with perfectionism. So you'd better be a Steve Jobs.

Don't you dare say Chain is failing. I'm still using the site! Just make it look a tiny bit nicer, get a few mentions on various blogs and you'll be fine. A PayPal donate link may help too?

Aw, thanks mouse! I love creating something that at least one person likes.

We're just refocusing the site. I'll toss you an email with the outline of the redesign so you can approve or disapprove it.

Edit: Email away

Re: Aaron Swartz: Perfectionism (and his new startup, Jottit)

#20

Post by far33d »

palish wrote: post #14
aston wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs releases with less than perfection all the time. If you need evidence, look no further than giving AT&T an exclusive with the iPhone. The key is accepting that people prefer products to promises, and just going ahead with something that's good enough without it being perfect.

Being a perfectionist doesn't mean you make perfect things. However, perfectionism requires perfect taste for success. It feels like there are two forms of design: "release early and release often" and "release it perfectly". Very few people have the taste necessary to find success in the latter.

Good point - "release early, release often" is also a quest to perfectionism, but is a public quest. You have your users determine what is perfect, what directions to go in.

Holding something to yourself until it is "perfect" is a solo quest. You may spend too much time on the wrong things and no time on the right things. But you also won't release something that is completely broken.

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