4 ms·

I am a perfectionist, and so far this has been holding me back massively. To the point where it's getting frustrating. I am trying to enter the Open Source worl

I am a perfectionist, and so far this has been holding me back massively. To the point where it's getting frustrating. I am trying to enter the Open Source world and that's only making it worse. Showing off things you aren't entirely proud of. I never considered quantity a worthwhile alternative goal, but maybe I should reconsider that. Thank you.

Retric 10y ago
The Engineering mindset is to make the best possible thing while minimizing cost, time, and complexity. I find that somewhat freeing as perfection off the table. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4Q_YBRJEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4Q_YBRJEI It works for a huge number of things two. Hmm I wonder if I can do this in 15 minutes, or I wonder how compact I can get this, or whatever as long as it's not abstract like make it pretty.
buzzybee 10y ago
Another way to state the problem is "you have to do it badly before you do it well". Not strictly true in every case, but software is in a broken state for most of its development and then suddenly works at the end, which is really weird and off-putting to human intuition. When the code just barely works then it works forever(given the same environment and inputs), while with most other processes it would be a improvement in success percentages or yield rates or other measures. It also leads to an issue with never really knowing what good code looks like, because we have to consider both the "it's still in development and therefore expected to be broken but easily debugged" state and the "it's in production and should be fast, reliable, practical" state. It can be great at one and not the other if the stakeholders aren't approaching it in a balanced way.
- agentultra 10y ago
  Sometimes it never gets to a "working" state and plods along in a "mostly not prone to errors." This works for games but when you get to payment systems, autopilot cars, and operating systems... Well it's not a good enough way of thinking. You need tools to help you think at a certain level of difficulty. Even for programmers we shamelessly glorify that level isn't very high... Yet hubris sometimes pushes us to make silly claims. I cannot disagree that "practice makes perfect." That applies at so many levels. One has to be comfortable with throwing things away and trying again. Practice dutifully and intentionally. Then realize what you don't know and where your limits are and have the humility and boldness to find ways to reach beyond them.
- kiba 10y ago
  Don't know how you write code, but I typically fix all visible bugs before moving on. If I want to complete a project, I make sure to scope a minimal set of features.
SN76477 10y ago
This is a good video. Helps you frame your goals and focus on your goals and stop thrashing. https://vimeo.com/5895898 https://vimeo.com/5895898
emp 10y ago
I found this excerpt useful: https://blog.codinghorror.com/quantity-always-trumps-quality/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/quantity-always-trumps-quality...
kriro 10y ago
Motivate your inner perfectionist by telling it that the perfect way of learning is trying a lot of different approaches and not one perfected approach. That way you can satisfy the meta-perfectionist while violating perfectionism on the day to day level (as long as you assume life is a learning process).
amelius 10y ago
One way to beat perfectionism is to try to pursue it to absurdity. If you are a painter, try to make the perfect painting. But recognize that, in order to do this, you will have to mix the perfect paint first. So now put your focus on the mixing paint. Recognize that each of the constituent base colors have to be perfect. Focus now on one color. Et cetera. Quickly, you notice that perfectionism really doesn't work. Everything is about making compromises. And the "perfect" painter is the one making the best compromises.
- adrianN 10y ago
  "How to make a pencil from scratch" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10631115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10631115

Retric 10y ago

The Engineering mindset is to make the best possible thing while minimizing cost, time, and complexity. I find that somewhat freeing as perfection off the table. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4Q_YBRJEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4Q_YBRJEI It works for a huge number of things two. Hmm I wonder if I can do this in 15 minutes, or I wonder how compact I can get this, or whatever as long as it's not abstract like make it pretty.

buzzybee 10y ago

Another way to state the problem is "you have to do it badly before you do it well". Not strictly true in every case, but software is in a broken state for most of its development and then suddenly works at the end, which is really weird and off-putting to human intuition. When the code just barely works then it works forever(given the same environment and inputs), while with most other processes it would be a improvement in success percentages or yield rates or other measures. It also leads to an issue with never really knowing what good code looks like, because we have to consider both the "it's still in development and therefore expected to be broken but easily debugged" state and the "it's in production and should be fast, reliable, practical" state. It can be great at one and not the other if the stakeholders aren't approaching it in a balanced way.

agentultra 10y ago
Sometimes it never gets to a "working" state and plods along in a "mostly not prone to errors." This works for games but when you get to payment systems, autopilot cars, and operating systems... Well it's not a good enough way of thinking. You need tools to help you think at a certain level of difficulty. Even for programmers we shamelessly glorify that level isn't very high... Yet hubris sometimes pushes us to make silly claims. I cannot disagree that "practice makes perfect." That applies at so many levels. One has to be comfortable with throwing things away and trying again. Practice dutifully and intentionally. Then realize what you don't know and where your limits are and have the humility and boldness to find ways to reach beyond them.
kiba 10y ago
Don't know how you write code, but I typically fix all visible bugs before moving on. If I want to complete a project, I make sure to scope a minimal set of features.

SN76477 10y ago

This is a good video. Helps you frame your goals and focus on your goals and stop thrashing. https://vimeo.com/5895898 https://vimeo.com/5895898

emp 10y ago

I found this excerpt useful: https://blog.codinghorror.com/quantity-always-trumps-quality/ https://blog.codinghorror.com/quantity-always-trumps-quality...

kriro 10y ago

Motivate your inner perfectionist by telling it that the perfect way of learning is trying a lot of different approaches and not one perfected approach. That way you can satisfy the meta-perfectionist while violating perfectionism on the day to day level (as long as you assume life is a learning process).

amelius 10y ago

One way to beat perfectionism is to try to pursue it to absurdity. If you are a painter, try to make the perfect painting. But recognize that, in order to do this, you will have to mix the perfect paint first. So now put your focus on the mixing paint. Recognize that each of the constituent base colors have to be perfect. Focus now on one color. Et cetera. Quickly, you notice that perfectionism really doesn't work. Everything is about making compromises. And the "perfect" painter is the one making the best compromises.

adrianN 10y ago
"How to make a pencil from scratch" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10631115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10631115