This slogan seems to be all the rage at the moment.
“Get it done! It doesn’t have to be perfect!”
As a perfectionist, I’m going to ignore my twitching eyelid right now and give you another perspective on this matter (of which I’m not particularly fond).
Definition of done
Let’s check in with our dictionary friends over at Merriam-Webster:
“The past participle of do.”
OK, so maybe I didn’t need the dictionary for this one.
Definition of perfect
What about perfection?
“The act of making something perfect or better; the act of perfecting something; something that cannot be improved; something that is perfect.”
HANG ON A SEC.
Is it the act of making something perfect, or the final state of perfection that cannot be reached no matter how much doing is done? What fresh hell of a metaphysical oxymoron is this?
And this gets to the heart of my issue with this phrase bouncing around the startup world.
I personally believe “done” is as close to “perfect” as possible. My degree of perfection may not be up there with Hemingway or Steve Jobs, but it’s an exacting (if shifting) standard I hold to myself in order to deliver good stuff.
I mean we can’t all win Nobel Prizes every day (wouldn’t that be tiring? Not to mention technically impossible considering I don’t live in Stockholm and they’re only awarded once a year).
I hate doing things just to scratch them off my list. If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well!
How people deal with “done is better than perfect”
“Done” can sometimes feel like an excuse to not do the best you can. You can fake it til you make it, follow the 80/20 rule, or have imposter syndrome, but you’re not going to get very far just by “doing”.
You’re not going to nail that dream job by crapping out the first thing that comes to mind for your cover letter (Ed: looking forward to the comment to the contrary).
You’re not going to ace your advanced calculus exam if you just stare at the cover of your textbook (if you can, please get in touch!).
You’re not going to get your dream girl/guy by simply showing up (unless you are Channing Tatum or Ed Westwick — and I bet neither of them would just show up and play statue).
You’ve got to shoot for the moon.
First impressions count, and we’ve all made the mistake of forgetting this from time to time. Or just forgetting that much of the time, it’s time itself you need to give yourself to strive for that little bit of perfection in your endeavours, rather than just getting them done.
How much time you ask? Well, Rome wasn’t build in a day, but it didn’t take centuries either. Oh wait… OK, let’s move on.
Give yourself the time to plan ahead, to work around your messy life, to let your hair down, to stare out at the ocean, to write that requirements doc, to debug your system, to design that deck. Value yours, because others value theirs.
And for those of you saying “Well, what if you only get an hour to do a task? It’s not like you can really stop time and get in that planning and preparation zone — time’s running out!” , I’ll say “Sure, we all get those tasks at least a gazillion times a week, but the point I’m trying to make is to stay away from just doing it and saying ‘whatever, it’s done’, and to actually doing the best you can no matter what (no one said life was easy).
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