Perfection is an illusion
2023-12-17
Large corporations increasingly present themselves like perfect systems, whose results (a.k.a their products and services) are presented as being perfection in its purest form (and sometimes might even get close). Obviously, everyone with just the slightest bit of media literacy understands that this carefully planned self-presentation without much connection to reality. However, I personally and many ambitious people I have met seem to have this inherent striving for perfecting everything we do. So, let's take a look at how realistic this is and how to deal with it...
You probably already suspected this from the title, but I just have to say it out loud so everyone understands it: PERFECTION IS AN ILLUSION . Nothing we humans can create is ever perfect, since we and all of our decisions as well as actions aren't. If something seems to be perfect, we just aren't able to see and understand it's shortcomings (yet) due to a lack of knowledge in the field and/or time to spend on our investigation. And this effect is exactly what large companies use - they present us with an actually impressive product and hide all of its problems and shortcomings so well via closed-source software, uncommon components and trade-secrets (often combined with patents) that we can't possibly understand them in the limited time we generally spend on your decision to purchase/use it. Thus, the impression of a perfect product/service is created and only gets emplified by more people falling for it and spreading the word.
Now, that we have established a reasonable baseline, I want to share the concept of decision minimalism with you. In a nutshell, it says that the time and resources we spend on a decision should only ever make up a small precentage of the time and resources its affects demand . An obvious example is that it makes zero sense to spend an hour selecting a meal at a restaurant, which we'll eat in just 30 minutes and is just slightly better than every other choice on the menu. But it also applies to most areas and decisions in life - may they be small or large. We shouldn't spend time optimizing and striving for perfection on problems that don't really affect us all to much and also shouldn't try to make a perfect plan for a new project, since we'll never reach that stage. Instead, it is fine to have a rough idea of where to go and just get started - real experience together with trial and error are much more effective ways to learn and move forward. The same goes for releasing a project to the public - it will never be perfect, so just share it once you have 80 % or so of your functionality working and it is good enough for normal use.
Just this realization alone is already huge, but we should also mind the decision fatigue and try to minimize our non-influential decisions altogether . There just is a limited amount of good decisions we can make and we certainly shouldn't spend them on choosing the right toilet cleaning solution. So, set clear rules for everday decisions (e. g. only buy cleaning products from company A and select their cheapest offering) and automate as much of the planning of your reoccuring duties as possible (e. g. via self-repeating calendar events for cleaning the toilet or doing the dishes). Offloading all these decisions and thoughts clears our short-term memory and frees mental abilities to work on the projects that are actually important to us and move us forward in life.
But you now might ask yourself: What should I even work on, what moves me forward? That's an excellent question far to few people come up with, since nobody can be exceptional in every area and many things are already so firmly established that we cant really change them. We just have to accept that there are things we don't have influence over, since it allows us to focus on what we can actually have an impact in and change something. A good method to find these niches is to think of the things you like doing and are interested in, find their surrounding areas and look out for shocking shortcomings most people would oversee. If you where able to spot one and there really isn't a good solution available right now, there most likely is a demand for such a solution and everyone else just overlooked it so far. This is the niche you can be influential in and have success with - this is your "universe". Focus on it. It's your best bet to really make a difference and develop a product so ahead of everything else that it also creates the illusion of perfection...