Thought for the day: Nothing’s Perfect
Mar 31, 2010 In Web Culture By Nishant Kothary
Solutions—especially design solutions—come with some strange baggage: we (often subconsciously) expect them to be perfect.
But how could they be?
Design solutions are approximations, and meant to meet real life needs. Real life. Yes, I’m referring that excruciatingly imperfect, unpredictable and human type of real life. Whether you’re designing a living space or architecting the information on a web site, your solution is not going to work in all instances.
It’s just not.
But don’t sulk about it. Accept it. Relish it. Find ecstasy in the idea that you’ll discover the shortcomings of your solution and improve it over time.
As Winston Churchill once said, “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
It’s true. Perfectionism is overrated. Striving for it is what’s truly amazing.
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This reminds med of the cult of done Manifesto. One of its harsh points are "Laugh at perfection. It''s boring and keeps you from being done".
I would say that striving for perfection is something that makes things take too much time and many times hinder people from getting things done. No matter how much time you spend polishing something it will not be perfect and it will most probably fail. The quicker you fail the better.
I think Winston''s point is that you should not strive for perfection but acknowledge that it is not achievable, thus forcing you to continuously change.
I have always been a perfectionist... and always hated being that. Reading this thought reminded me of the bright side of perfection, which is true that it''s changing often. On the other hand, I agree with Mikael''s point on putting a limit and not strive forever. I guess this is when art gets engineered.