Completion vs. Perfection (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Completion vs. Perfection

[Mounds]

When it comes to me creating things, I've definitely a perfectionist. It has held me back in the past. With many projects, I'll actually try to be a perfectionist with each step of the process. So if it's ten steps to get something done, I might get stuck on step 2 or 3 and burnout. That's no good.
I'm gonna try this completion thing on and see where it leads. I've got a mind hack that I like to use for these types of things. It's a bit hypnotic and last time i did it, it made me very sleepy so try it before bed.
What I do is imagine myself in the "hallway of my mind". Find the door for "perfectionism" and go inside. Your mind should come up with some sort of representation. Whatever it is, change it so it's unfavorable. It's just like changing things in a lucid dream.
When you're done messing around, exit through the door and break the state. Walk around, get a glass of water. Then do it again for "completing". Enter the door and make it favorable. You might enter into that representation and see a tree with no leaves. Add some leaves. How does that feel? How's the temperature of the air? Is there noise? What's that like? It's pretty fun but it wipes you out.
Great article.

[roxyruby]

This article was great for me. Thank you.

[Sansone]

This one definitely hits home for me.

I'm making this post my browser home page for a little while.

[cshwk1995]

Lower the standard so work could be completed timely......is a very sound way to defeat delay.

On the other hand, nowadays, given that anything one can think of, are probably there on the shelf......

Probably, the question sometimes not simply about : completion Vs perfection......
but might be more about : how to generate cool stuff within a reasonable time budget?

Get it completed is still better than an unfinished ideal, although mediocre products probably can't attract much sale either......under nowadays highly competitive market environment......

Having said that, I would certainly adopt "Get it completed" attitude to get myself START to work on it NOW rather than delay for future more info moment......

however, whether or not to deliver to market with completed yet mediocre stuff, is another matter to consider......

[gberardi]

I'm curious how to resolve the advice "get it done" versus "get it perfect" with "zero defect software development".

While the latter article wasn't about zero bugs and perfect software, I think there's a difference between a desire for perfection and a desire for great quality/value.

As cshwk1995 points out, getting it (whatever it is) out there in a mediocre state might be better than never getting it out, but what if waiting a month or six months to put out a much better "it' produces much better results?

I'm working on my first major game project, and since the beginning, I discovered that I have almost no technology base to work with. I've never needed it for short prototypes, and hacking doesn't scale to larger games! I thought I would take a month to turn a 3 day prototype into a full fledged game, but now I'm projecting my project to be completed in the summer.

Since I'm making 2D games that are cross-platform (I use Linux-based systems, so I'd like to play the games I make, too), existing cross-platform 2D game engines and components are hard to come by, and so I'm rolling my own tech. I know the perils of writing a game engine as opposed to creating a game, but without the scaffolding, I can't make a game.

I blog about it and discuss it with other developers on IRC, and I periodically get advice from people who think I'm trying to write perfect code for a general purpose game engine. Honestly, I'm not happy with how long it is taking me to get the game finished, but I don't think my problem is in trying to create perfection.

On the other hand, my game isn't finished yet. Could their assumptions about what I'm doing be right? Am I refusing to see a third way here that will let me make my game in a more reasonable time frame? Or is it perfectly reasonable to expect that some work is going to take longer if you want to produce something of value?

I can't be expected to churn out crap and expect customers to buy, right? I can't put out a game supported with shoddy code and expect maintenance to be easy, right?

Completion of crap is still crap. Perfection never gets completed. How do you ensure that your desire to put out good quality work doesn't prevent you from completing it?

Is it as simple as identifying the key aspects of your product and focusing on getting those to a "zero defect" state?

[Chris_1977]

Originally Posted by gberardi

I'm curious how to resolve the advice "get it done" versus "get it perfect" with "zero defect software development".

While the latter article wasn't about zero bugs and perfect software, I think there's a difference between a desire for perfection and a desire for great quality/value.

Actually, there is an article about "zero defect software development" by Steve Pavlina. But maybe you are instead referring to software with some guarantees, like the guarantee that the program will never crash. In the first case, applying the principles of "zero defect software development" seems very sound and not adhering to them will cost more time than adhering to them. In the second case, the first question is whether we really need a no-crash guarantee. This depends on the project. A game that sometimes crashes may well be better than no game. A program designed for a space shuttle is a whole different beast. Of course Nasa does not mind spending a factor of more than 100 per line of code more than the industry average. Also programs with a no-crash guarantee may well be imperfect in other respects, such as lacking features or an awkward user interface.

[Cochonette]

Great post. I really like the metaphor of the rose and thorns. This is what I have been working on for more than half a year. The idea of accepting that there will always be negative feedback and negative perspectives of what I do really resonates with me.

I still find it demotivating when my managers/coworker start talking to me like they want to prevent me from doing something wrong (which feels like perfectionism) versus approaching me as if they're trying to help me do something right. I think that perfectionism is about trying to prevent wrong from existing, while completion is more just about making something good happen. But at the same time, it's giving into their perfectionism and internalizing it if I let that stress me out... it's me wishing to prevent them from their perfectionism and negativity because it does affect my reality... but duplicating it won't get me anywhere. Although, I know it's only natural to mirror others' feelings.

I have to show that I'm stronger than their perfectionism - and my perfectionism - by just focusing on making the good happen, internally and externally. Fortunately, I am doing that right now. My coworker was stressing me out, but I stopped talking to him so he would leave me alone... we were kind of friends, but I decided his friendship wasn't worth his perfectionistic whining at me. I have been performing much better on the job ever since! One of these days I'll have it figured out how to transform instead of mirror such B.S., but until then, I'm just blocking him out completely.

[gberardi]

Originally Posted by Chris_1977

Actually, there is an article about "zero defect software development" by Steve Pavlina.

Yep, that's the article I was referring to. B-)

Originally Posted by Cochonette

I think that perfectionism is about trying to prevent wrong from existing, while completion is more just about making something good happen.

Actually, that's a good way to think about my own project. I'm not trying to prevent any existence of wrong. I'm just trying to make it easier to do good.

Ironically, the people who are warning me about my supposed desire for perfection are acting kind of like your perfectionist coworkers. I'm probably making mistakes, but their concern about the nature of the mistakes I'm possibly making are making me second-guess myself and adding a lot of stress.

I've also found it helpful to say "Thanks for your input. I'm going to continue being productive now. Bye." B-)

[cshwk1995]

maybe it is suitable to divide into cases :

1) There are already many computer games everywhere, so mediocre games will not very likely get hit......

2a) Think about the dot com booming period in 90'. Time-to-market is still very important. Some early websites, although not working very well, might still successfully grab large market share. Then they improve it later after their name being popular. So, "get it finished" may be the winners.
On the other hand, some late competitors, although better engineered, need more effort to gain the market share.

2b) Yet, if the late competitors are real cool, there is no difficulty in winning the market share back. For example: yahoo search engine VS Google engine. Another example might be Window CE VS IOS.

So, whether go for "get it done" VS "get it cool"?
It depends......

[Fred Tracy]

This article was an incredible synchronicity for me.

I actually just wrote a mildly offensive article. It was the first time I've ever dared to write anything that I thought would receive negative feedback. I found myself actually looking forward to any possible arguments. It would be fun to see how people would react.

During that article, and more others, I tend to have a tendency for perfectionism. Your article really showed me that just plowing through and actually producing something is much better than sitting there and perfecting all day. Besides, who will really even notice those tiny changes? 5-10% of my readers? Probably less.

This actually helps me a lot, so really, thanks Steve.

[rakito]

Very true.

[Jonathan Browne]

dope article.

[cacheborn]

Reminded me of this quote..

“Don’t get it right, just get it written.” James Thurber (1894-1961) Author

Interesting to see how most of the successful people have similar thoughts.