Perfect Is The Enemy of Done But When Is Good Enough Good Enough?

In any creative endeavor, or even professional endeavor where you have to polish a project or proposal, there is this feeling that you can do just a little bit more to make it better. Just another pass to clean up the lines. A quick edit to make sure the flow is right. Another look over to make sure you have no typos in your proposal for how to train people in the use of the Spell Check feature of a word processor.

Just another, a little, a bit, more, more, more, more. The thing is, once you've fallen into that trap you're never going to be finished. It could always be better with just a bit more work, and it will never be perfect, which is what your brain is trying to do. In that regard while you are going for perfection you will never be done, which is a fancy way of saying that for something to be done it can't be perfect.

But that leaves the question of how good is good enough? "Good enough" as a phrase kind of has a negative connotation to it. We don't say something is "good enough" when it is actually good, we say it when we want to justify something. "It's good enough considering..." or "It's good enough for a first effort" or even "It's good enough to be a blog post."

Somewhere in the middle is where your project needs to be.

If you're writing, the middle is not "after the first draft." I mean, not unless you want it to look hideous and be full of mistakes you didn't notice.

The same is true for any art, and even simple things like e-mails. Find the right spot in the middle, but remember it can't be perfect and at some point it does have to be good enough.

Growing Up

Probably the most surreal experience I've been going through lately is that the people around me, people I consider to be in my age range, are starting to have kids by choice in their endeavor to start or grow their family. Now, objectively that doesn't sound weird. I was born in the 80s, it's now the 20-teens, and that means that even if I were born in 1990 I'd be 24 now, which is about wen that starts to happen (for those just turning 24, it starts with marriage and goes from there usually. Sometimes in reverse though.)

Giving Up Videogames?

I apologize for the lack of posts the past couple of weeks. I'd love to say I've been busy, except that what I've been busy with hasn't really been stuff that couldn't be set aside. It would be more fair to say that I've been distracted rather than busy, and while I'm not ashamed of that it is something that has to be dealt with.

Like many people I have goals and aspirations. One of those is keeping this blog and Reality Refracted up and running. It doesn't take much. This blog only really needs a post a week. Reality Refracted needs three posts a week but about a topic I've proven I can talk endlessly about for four years or so now. Beyond that though I have other things I want to do and videogames are less and less a part of that.

Don't get me wrong, I still love games. I love the power they have. I love the narratives they can tell. But the thing of working 8-9 hours a day, going home, making dinner, and then videogames for the rest of the night just feels a bit shallow right now. Whats more is that, on my own, I'm not even sure I enjoy the game for the game itself.

For example, on Tuesday this week after dinner I was on my computer. My friend who I normally play League with wasn't around so I logged in to the apartment Minecraft server. I did a few things, but no one else was on the server and I grew bored fairly quickly. In the end I logged out, put on a movie ,and did other stuff for the evening. It was kind of awesome and very productive.

My thought is that with the exception of gaming as a social exercise that it doesn't hold the same sway it once did. Maybe that is just a temporary mood, but I can't help but think that making it a conscious choice could clear the way for other things. And yet, at the same time, that conscious choice could just drive me back to old habits if out of spite and nothing else.

It's a strange feeling. Kind of like growing up. Still, I did love the feeling of productivity I had that night. I guess time will tell where I stand but forward progress on dreams and aspirations can't be a bad thing.