Here’s a great post from Joel Spolsky on perfectionism:
“If I was as much of a perfectionist as some here would have me be, I would never get out the door in the morning, I’d be so busy scrubbing the floors of my apartment until they sparkle and shaving every ten minutes and removing lint from my clothing with masking tape, and by the time I finished that I’d have to shave again and take out the trash because there was masking tape in the trash and re-scrub the floor because when I took the trash out I might have tracked in dust. And then I’d have to shave again….
Perfectionism is a very dangerous quality in business and in life, because by being perfectionist about one thing you are, by definition, neglecting another.”
The post reminded me of my earlier article about restoring a 15-year-old file and a Technology Review article about why software is so bad. So optimal lives somewhere between buggy and perfect. (Now, should I file this post under software.perfect or perfect.software? Or both?)
