War on Perfect

Posted by Nick Sieger Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:30:00 GMT

I intended to give this brief as a lightning talk at RubyConf 2010, but unfortunately did not get a chance. Though I kept the message simple, I think if you sympathize with being a perfectionist you can find some part of these points that rings true. I know I still have a ways to go in heeding my own advice, and not only in software but in my life as a whole.

Thanks to Hiro Asari for the Japanese translations and Jeremy Hinegardner for the Rubygems.org numbers.

War on Perfect

I want to start a war.

宣戦布告

A war on Perfection!

完璧主義への宣戦布告！

Perfect.

完璧

I hate this word.

この言葉が大嫌いです。

I want to eliminate it from our vocabulary.

私達の語彙から抹消したいのです。

What is Perfect?

そもそも完璧とは何でしょう。

Ask 10 people, get 10 answers.

訊けば十人十色の答えが返ってくるでしょう。

Different answers means disagreement.

答えが違うという事は、いずれ食い違いが起こるという事に他なりません。

Perfection cannot accept compromise.

完璧主義には妥協の余地がありません。

Without compromise, we cannot get along, or get anything done.

妥協無しには、仲良くやって行ったり 何かを成し遂げる事は出来ないでしょう。

(Just look at politics in the USA.)

アメリカの政治を見れば解りますね。

Perfect is lonely if you can’t agree or share with anyone else.

他人と合意や共有が出来ないので 完璧主義とは孤独でもあります。

We are human. No one wants to be alone.

僕らは人間。孤独は厭です。

Perfect is contagious

完璧主義は伝染し易い。

If you’re not embarrassed when you ship your first version you waited too long.

「初めのリリースで恥ずかしくないのはリリースを遅らせ過ぎた証。」

-- Matt Mullenweg マット・マレンウェグ

How many Ruby gems have never seen 1.0?

Rubyのgemで1.0に到達しないものは幾つありますか。

Any guesses?

けんとうはつきますか。

17864 Rubygems 86837 versions バージョン

13496 gems without a version that does not start with “0”. 75 Percent!

75%

I challenge you all to release 1.0 on your first push to Rubygems next time.

この次にRubygemsにプッシュする時はバージョンを1.0にしましょう。

Perfect is impossible

完璧は不可能

If you seek it, you will never quite attain it.

求めても得る事は難しい。

You will worry it’s not perfect enough, and it will escape your grasp.

あなたが完璧か心配しているうちに完璧は逃げて行ってしまう。

Perfect keeps you too focused on one thing.

完璧主義は視野を狭くする。

Your mind will cripple you.

そして足枷になる。

You won’t be able to finish it.

プロジェクトを完成出来ずに

You’ll feel helpless because nothing is ever good enough.

よくやったと思えずに、絶望感に襲われる。

Perfect ruins your productivity.

完璧主義では生産性が損なわれる。

You’ll feel like your work is never done.

いつまで経っても仕事が終わらないように思えるから。

Perfect is harmful to your health.

完璧主義は健康に悪い。

We work too hard to achieve perfection.

完璧を求め、働き過ぎる。

We set our personal standards too high.

水準が高過ぎる。

And rarely reach them.

しかも滅多に到達する事もない。

So we worry about not being good enough.

だから、「これで充分」と思えずに心労する。

This makes us ANXIOUS.

それで不安になる。

Anxiety can give you stress,

不安はストレスに繋がり

make you sick,

病気に繋がることもある。

or even kill you.

最悪の場合死ぬことすらある。

We can’t be happy if we’re anxious or unhealthy.

不安だったり不健康では幸せにはなれない。

We can’t be happy if we accept no compromises.

妥協無しには幸せにはなれない。

We can’t be happy if we’re alone.

独りぼっちでは幸せにはなれない。

We can’t be happy if we strive for perfection.

完璧主義では幸せにはなれない。

Matz knows this. He is WISE!

Matzはこのことを知っています。聡明なまっつ。

Ruby is not perfect.

Rubyは完璧ではない。

(Matz knows this too!)

これもMatzは知っています。

Matz made Ruby so we could be happy.

まっつは私達の幸せのためRubyを作りました。

Perfection keeps us from:

完璧主義では

making compromises,

妥協は許されない。

getting things done,

何かを成し遂げる事は出来ない。

enjoying each other’s company,

他人と同じ時間を過ごす喜びを見いだせない。

being happy.

幸せになれない。

And that’s why I hate it.

私が完璧主義を嫌う理由です。

So you can either try to be:

選択肢は二つ

Perfect [and be]

完璧である換わりに

Lonely

独りぼっちで

Unproductive

非生産的で

Unhealthy

不健康であるか

or you can be HAPPY.

或いは、幸せであるか。

I’ll choose to be happy. I hope you do too.

私は後者を選びます。あなたはどうですか。

ありがとうございました！

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I was Paul Gonsalves

Posted by Nick Sieger Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:40:00 GMT

I was Paul Gonsalves in the shower this morning. Most people sing in the shower, but when I get going I play air sax. For a fleeting moment I felt like I was blowing with the Ellington band at Newport in 1956. The way obscure things flow in and out of consciousness is a weird thing.

If you haven’t checked out the 1956 Ellington at Newport live recording of Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, you really should. I hadn’t heard the recording for years until my lovely wife put it on a great jazz mix playlist that we listened to on the road last weekend. The recording is completely infectious; my foot was tapping within a few moments of the start of the song. The Newport concert is infamous in Jazz lore -- Gonsalves blew 27 choruses and put the crowd into a frenzy. The great thing about the recording, even though it’s a little bit scratchy, is that you can hear and feel the energy of the crowd coming through. Although it’s probably a bit hyperbolic, some Jazz writers claim that Gonsalves single-handedly revived Ellington’s career that day.

Why was my mind in that state at that moment? I wish I knew. The mystery of heightened awareness that is flow is an elusive quality. At lunch at RubyNation yesterday a discussion arose of just how rare it is to attain that awareness. Glenn Vanderburg described how only a few times in his double-digit year career as a conference speaker has he felt like he has had that hyper-aware state, where he was receiving feedback from the crowd during a talk and able to adjust mid-stream and feel completely on. The difference of timing and how that affects an audience’s response is striking. The difference between being on and having a joke or a point fall flat is incredibly sensitive, as any performance artist will tell you. Just to think about it gives me a newfound respect for stand-up comedians, where timing is so crucial.

I myself haven’t quite felt that heightened state while delivering a conference talk, but I have felt it while playing jazz. Still, it has happened only once or twice in my life. If you’ve felt that flow, you know rare it is and how you absolutely cannot manufacture it at will. The feeling is such a high that I suspect it leaves artists, performers, and creative types feeling unfulfilled and half-desperately searching for it for the rest of their careers.

I’m not very well read in this area, but I’d like to learn more. Any suggestions for reading material?

I tend to stew on these things for a while but fail to put together a coherent, digestible conclusion, I thought I’d at least write something up, get it out there, and start a conversation. When have you felt that flow, and have you noticed how you get into it?

Other tangential thoughts swirling around in my head:

  • Is flow related to a search for perfection? Instead, should we coach ourselves to cope with life’s imperfections? Dave Thomas gave his “Ruby sucks” talk last night at RubyNation and eloquently made the point that Ruby is not perfect, and that’s what makes it great. I’ve struggled with not settling for less than perfect and it ends up usually being more detrimental to my production than anything else.
  • Why Americans Don’t Like Jazz. Have we lost an appreciation for things we can’t put to words?

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