The journey to Goodenoughia - Part 1
Part 1: The dream of Perfectally.
Before I even get into describing Perfectally lets forget about for a while and focus on the first step of getting anything over there. Being satisfied with the work we are doing, that is a problem we all have in some areas and as far as I am aware, and it is a problem that we will keep on facing all throughout our lives.
There are things that I just never seem to deem as being good enough, and this, writing is definitely one of them. No matter how pleased I feel with a text at the moment of writing it, I find myself wanting to re-read it over and over again, and this results in me always finding small or large faults that I think I need to correct. This constant rewriting, the very place I am in right now for the fourth time, is something that in the long run takes up so much time and energy that I never complete any of what I planned to do.
I talked about this very topic with a friend the other day where he said he has the exact same problem. The problem of never feeling entirely satisfied with what he produces, always seeing faults and things that he missed in what he did.
That all being said, we all seem to have a wish of producing something that makes it in through the heavenly gates of Perfectally. Ok, now I guess I have to describe what it is. Perfectally is the place in everyone’s mind where you will find only the hottest models that you have never seen, the place where every product looks and feels like a better version of Steve Jobs designed it, the place where every book is at least as good as Harry Potter and most are way better and have sold way more copies, yeah you get the deal, the place where everything is perfect.
There are some problems with this place however, problems that are important to understand before planning your journey there.
First and foremost, most of us are our own worst critics, people are in general harder on themselves than they would be on others. So chances are that I would think what you are doing is good or even great work, just as I do with my friend.
The second problem is that there will always be people who criticize whatever you do. These are either people who are insecure and get annoyed when they see someone else doing something, I would guess these make up 99% of these people. The others 1% are people who have spent a lot more time doing whatever you are doing, and that will, therefore, deem the work you are doing, whatever it is as faulty. They might tell you what you did wrong or what you should correct and why. This may just be because they want to help, or it could also be because they needed to let off some steam. Whatever the reason for the critique might be, good or bad, it is bound to happen once enough people see your work.
The third and last part is that no matter how perfect you make something, future you will not be entirely pleased. Let’s take the case or my writing again, for example, even if I have reread something 10 times and have been lucky to have had other people do this for me as well, I know I will change my mind in the future. I might get more educated on the subject. I might realize that I should have written a bit more nuanced to shine a light on those complex outliers that I missed. I might find my writing to be pretentious, which is usually the case for me. I might come up with a better wording or any other number of things, or many of these will come up at the same time and I will look to this whole thing as a being a bad post.
Fully understanding and accepting these problems should make you feel that your prospects of ever getting anything into Perfectally are bleak, and you should feel this because they really are!
Think about it, even if you could get to the stage where you think it is perfect, someone else would not agree, and even if you had reached world-class and therefore managed to convince everyone else that it is, the future you will be even more world-class and still ruin it for a proud present you. See, even in the very very best case, you would only get something to this perfect place for a split second, before the future you enters the picture with his or her future critique.
So, something very important to take away from this, and something that we all need to understand is that the dream of Perfectally, the dream that we are all chasing is just that, a dream.
What there is, however, is a place called Goodenoughia, and this is where we should aim to get our work.
Even if Goodenoughia is far from being as perfect as Perfectally, what it has going for it is that it, unlike Perfectally, actually exists.
I will do my best to figure out how to get my ideas there more frequently, and I’ll try to explain how as I am going through the process myself. And since you are now reading this, this text did actually end up making it there, so I guess that is a start!
