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The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

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Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#81

Post by MrBoomixer »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #55

I was diagnosed in my thirties with a congenital condition. I decided "I need to start making more Bs if I'm ever going to get anywhere." Twenty years later, I look back on my high expectations and realize that I was inculcated with them in childhood and also got a lot of support in childhood for being able to hit those performance marks in school. Growing up and leaving home meant I still had high expectations but I…

An interesting reaction to what you're saying here for me is, I feel bad and have this bar while doing but when looking back I always see things in a positive way. I'm not sure where this comes from but trying to keep the Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." while doing a thing seems highly valuable to me. Thank you.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#82

Post by jkhdigital »

lhorie wrote: post #23

It strikes me as weird to address an issue of unrealistic standards by implementing a bunch of productivity systems (pomodoro, etc) and data collection schemes, since these systems are fallible, which feeds right back to the anxiety loop. I feel like it's appropriate to bring up meditation, and specifically self-awareness. There's something about seeing yourself as a third party that helps put things into a larger co…

This was my immediate reaction as well. The entire article feels like it is attempting to solve a problem using the exact same kind of thinking that created the problem in the first place.

I think meditation is great, but I am more inclined toward the Western religious traditions that state “faith without works is dead”. Getting outside of yourself by helping others is a much more concrete and visceral experience, with similar results on your mental landscape.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#83

Post by jkhdigital »

kirse wrote: post #57
bitexploder wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the techniques for “life philosophy” in the Bible are cribbed from Greek philosophy with a heap of mysticism stirred in to obscure it all. Just go to the source: the stoics and other Greeks. The dichotomy of control (serenity prayer) predates the Bible by some time, for example.

Sure, if you want to extract the various proverbs, there's plenty of practical and related wisdom. But the stoics had nothing to do with Christ, who is the target of faith in the Bible. Further, the stoics hardly had disciples who were completely broke and yet carried their message far enough to end up sawn in two, tarred and lit on fire, crucified upside-down, beheaded, gutted by swords, etc.

Indeed—the power of an idea is not fully captured in the words that describe it, but rather it gains full force in the stories and images that one associates with it.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#84

Post by jraph »

mgkimsal wrote: post #80
jraph wrote: post #77

Put "Good Enough" next to your first name and be proud. If you find yourself perfectionist at work, maybe it is just a matter of caring less about work, just enough [1]. It will probably help you meet the deadlines, push less time pressure on everything and everybody and overall get you better outcomes. If something needs to be improved it will. Or it won't, but maybe it's not your problem anymore then. Worse is some…

> push less time pressure on everything and everybody and overall get you better outcomes. If something needs to be improved it will. Or it won't, but then maybe it's not your problem anymore. Most of what I do I'm either solely or primarily responsible for, and when something breaks, it comes back to me. I've rarely been in situations where something wasn't my problem. By the time it was a 'problem', if someone was…

The bar is then probably: "can be ugly if it's too much work to do it by the state of the art, but robust enough not to (unexpectedly) break on you at the worst time"

Maybe it's a matter of handling nominal cases, shipping/releasing and only then handling the cases more at the edge (just) after, but with nominal cases out of the way with someone waiting for results and putting pressure while you are working on your stuff. You win the occasion on working on your stuff will less stress, which might as well end up in a more robust result.

For some problems, maybe it's acceptable to handle them when they occur. It could have allowed someone who rely on a feature to use it earlier and be more productive despite this problem, instead of waiting for the perfect solution. It may allow more communication, and therefore more insight, which may help producing better results too.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#85

Post by fastball »

kirse wrote: post #57
bitexploder wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the techniques for “life philosophy” in the Bible are cribbed from Greek philosophy with a heap of mysticism stirred in to obscure it all. Just go to the source: the stoics and other Greeks. The dichotomy of control (serenity prayer) predates the Bible by some time, for example.

Sure, if you want to extract the various proverbs, there's plenty of practical and related wisdom. But the stoics had nothing to do with Christ, who is the target of faith in the Bible. Further, the stoics hardly had disciples who were completely broke and yet carried their message far enough to end up sawn in two, tarred and lit on fire, crucified upside-down, beheaded, gutted by swords, etc.

And suicide bombers blow themselves up for their faith.

Zeal is not a useful measure for the quality of teachings.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#86

Post by mgkimsal »

jraph wrote: post #84
mgkimsal wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> push less time pressure on everything and everybody and overall get you better outcomes. If something needs to be improved it will. Or it won't, but then maybe it's not your problem anymore. Most of what I do I'm either solely or primarily responsible for, and when something breaks, it comes back to me. I've rarely been in situations where something wasn't my problem. By the time it was a 'problem', if someone was…

The bar is then probably: "can be ugly if it's too much work to do it by the state of the art, but robust enough not to (unexpectedly) break on you at the worst time" Maybe it's a matter of handling nominal cases, shipping/releasing and only then handling the cases more at the edge (just) after, but with nominal cases out of the way with someone waiting for results and putting pressure while you are working on your s…

Thank you for the response. It's a constant effort to find that balance, and it changes as projects and people change.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#87

Post by jraph »

mgkimsal wrote: post #86
jraph wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bar is then probably: "can be ugly if it's too much work to do it by the state of the art, but robust enough not to (unexpectedly) break on you at the worst time" Maybe it's a matter of handling nominal cases, shipping/releasing and only then handling the cases more at the edge (just) after, but with nominal cases out of the way with someone waiting for results and putting pressure while you are working on your s…

Thank you for the response. It's a constant effort to find that balance, and it changes as projects and people change.

To be accurate, when I wrote this:

> If something needs to be improved it will. Or it won't, but then maybe it's not your problem anymore.

I had my situation in mind, where I would often find myself wanting something to be improved but unfortunately I'm not the one deciding what gets done. And if I were, I still would not make the decision of doing so because of priorities.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#88

Post by gpsx »

lhorie wrote: post #23

It strikes me as weird to address an issue of unrealistic standards by implementing a bunch of productivity systems (pomodoro, etc) and data collection schemes, since these systems are fallible, which feeds right back to the anxiety loop. I feel like it's appropriate to bring up meditation, and specifically self-awareness. There's something about seeing yourself as a third party that helps put things into a larger co…

It is a pretty tough task to measure how productive you are (for the sake of better expectations). Assuming you do succeed at measuring your maximum productivity. The you have to measure is your distribution of productivity over time. This again is quite a tough task. A short cut is to just not beat yourself up over your productivity on a given day. Granted, that maybe easier said than done, but maybe that is what the OP should strive for. Or, maybe he is on the path to doing that.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#89

Post by BurningFrog »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #46
MauranKilom wrote: post #11

A few years ago, I made a new year's resolution to be more forgiving to myself. At the time, I would feel miserable at the end of the day for, say, not doing laundry even though I had resolved to do so. I would downright hate myself for not getting this simple task done despite having had the time. So, that year, whenever I would have such a thought, I'd tell myself that I forgive my past self. "It's ok!" And it has…

But if you don’t mind me asking—what happens when you, well, don’t have the laundry done, and you realize you actually really need a clean shirt? (Or whatever.)

As I understand OPs story, that happens with or without the self hate.

Figuring out a way to get the laundry done should in theory be easier once you are not being bullied by yourself.

Re: The goal of standards is to improve our future actions

#90

Post by k5z »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #46
MauranKilom wrote: post #11

A few years ago, I made a new year's resolution to be more forgiving to myself. At the time, I would feel miserable at the end of the day for, say, not doing laundry even though I had resolved to do so. I would downright hate myself for not getting this simple task done despite having had the time. So, that year, whenever I would have such a thought, I'd tell myself that I forgive my past self. "It's ok!" And it has…

But if you don’t mind me asking—what happens when you, well, don’t have the laundry done, and you realize you actually really need a clean shirt? (Or whatever.)

I definitely fall into some of these patterns; that being said there’s a pretty likely chance of me just buying new clothes
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