There are two types of people in the world, the “don’t release anything until it’s flawless” people, and the “minimum viable product” people. I don’t agree with either of of ’em.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of “minimum viable product.” It helps to break that idea that something has to be flawless before launching it into the world. That being said, life is about balance and existing in that uncomfortable grey zone between the two extremes. In other words, don’t launch sloppy work, but if you wait for it to be perfect, you’ll never launch.
80% of perfectionism is just egotistical navel-gazing. I saw this a lot in the design world where designers were producing work to win awards rather than solve business problems. If you’re producing work just to win awards, it’s time to reevaluate your goals in life.
Perfectionism may look good in his shiny shoes, but he’s a little bit of an asshole and no one invites him to their pool parties.
– Ze Frank
Instead, I recommend understanding what your work is trying to accomplish. Now, before you put the brakes on releasing your work into the world, ask yourself if this imperfection you’ve noticed will actually impact the purpose of that work. If no, then stop wasting time gazing into your own belly button and push the damn button. Yeah yeah, you’re detail oriented, but the truth is 98% of people consuming your work don’t care that much, and the other 2% can f*** off.
Push the button.
This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.
Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).