When is Perfect Perfect?

We should all aim to think like Voltaire.

Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.

(In his writings, a wise Italian
says that the best is the enemy of the good)

not flawless by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash

The more modern interpretation of that quotation is “the perfect is the enemy of the good.”

Do you know when it is time to stop trying to perfect the work that you’re doing?

We all have varying levels of what we interpret is quality or, more specifically, perfect quality. 

Flawless.

Is that realistic? Does it add value?

In my particular instance, there are certain things that I try to have as perfect as I possibly can. However when someone that has a more trained eye, is a subject matter expert of that specific topic, my perfect may be garbage to their eyes. The one thing that we recognize in this pursuit of perfection, it may be best just to produce something, deliver something, now. Let it run in the wild, allowing others to consume it, have input, maybe even begin to utilize the less-than-perfect solution. If I share my information or knowledge much sooner without worrying about its approach to perfection, and the person that picks it up and immediately capitalizes on it, is that not better value than trying to make it perfectly perfect?

At some point, we need to recognize that what we are trying to create or we are trying to produce is good enough and we need to stop trying to make it perfect.

First Time for Everything

When you’re creating something for the first time, how can you deliver what you consider is perfect? You are creating something in a void, a vacuum, your imaginary little world where you are certain this is exactly what your audience wants, but is it? The detail that you are creating is limited by your imagination. Oh, and skill.

Perfection is a slippery slope. The razor’s edge between consuming significant hours while “perfecting” your work, teetering on the disastrous side. You are frozen in fear of delivering something that is completely unacceptable. Please recognize that the definition of “perfect” tends to suggest that perfect really is not perfect. “It is as good as it is possible to be.” It comes down to being able to measure the results of the work that you were spending to make it perfect.

For instance, if you find yourself working on an image and you are modifying small areas of the visual you are presenting, in the micro terms, in your world, it matters — maybe. You are an expert. You want it to be perfect. Is your audience an expert? Are they looking at that smudge, those small groups of pixels that you have modified? No, they are looking at the macro image, the whole picture. Did that extended effort matter? Does that add value to your results? How much extra are you being paid for the microfinish polishing effort that consumed an additional three hours? What? None? Then why are you doing it? Pride? Look behind you, is there a lot more work piled up behind you awaiting completion? Quit polishing, quit fussing. It is good. Your good will be light years ahead of the masses that fall into Pareto’s bucket. Your good is someone else’s perfection.

Do you need this? photo by Jack Harner on Unsplash

Yet the converse to this is a slapdash hodgepodge of a hot mess — the homemade cat poop that we sometimes put out for the world to see, is not what is being suggested. We are trying to ship a product that is good enough. Do it right and fast. Find the perfect necessary balance. Understanding and realizing when something is good enough is a challenge. At some point you need to stop massaging the text, you need to stop manipulating the image, you need to stop worrying about those minutiae that have little relevance in the world. Consider the value of the work that you were doing that moves the needle significantly. Use Pareto — the 80% rule — as a good measure of what you consider is good enough.

Seth Godin’s Ship It pamphlet has a series of great questions as part of the inventory of your efforts and helps set the plan for your work and effort. It helps define your scope of work. Think of edge cases. Easy — difficult. Cheap — expensive. Fast — slow. Who are your customers? Think of the delivery from their perspective, not yours. From their worldview. Your filters are not their filters. Consider what you can imagine the perfect answer or the perfect solution to the problem. Seth tells you to ask yourself, what does perfect look like? You also have to look at the question, what does good enough look like? What are you willing to accept as a reasonable interpretation of what you are intending to deliver? Find the balance between those two points, and you will find the area that you will be most productive at the highest quality allowed.

If you wait for it to be perfect you will never deliver, but if you deliver garbage you will not get anything in return. Find that area that works best, but please please please, stop looking at flaws in the window, in the glass. Look at the whole, look through the window. See your success.

Go forth and be brilliant.