Let’s consider the stages from SHIT to EXCELLENCE:
poorly, mediocre, properly, excellently (robustly), too well
POORLY will fuck you up almost immediately
-the wheels will fall off
-you’ll be late by 3h
-MULTIPLE things will magically go wrong
-everything is of obvious poor quality visible to the naked eye
-unpleasant in taste
-really dangerous, big, devastating blunders will likely occur
MEDIOCRE will also fuck you over very soon
-something will break
-you MIGHT be on time
-visible poor quality, the rest is mediocre, some things are “ok”
-disappointing in taste
-big blunder, loss, FAILURE, likely to occur
“PROPERLY” will be more than enough for the SHORT TERM…
-nothing should break just yet
-you won’t be late, unless real trouble
-nothing immediately strikes as poorly made or a mistake
-tastes solid
-really big blunders are rare
…but it is DEFINITELY not a ‘problem solved for good’
-something will break sooner or later
-you will be late sometimes
-there will be disappointment sometimes
-taste will be off sometimes
-really big blunder, whammy WILL happen eventually, and you will suffer
Therefore it’s only if you do it EXCELLENTLY (/robustly) — that the problem has a chance of being SOLVED FOR GOOD
-you actively stress-test and look to eliminate points of failure
-you’re always early, finish everything early
-built-in redundancies and fallbacks
-quality is immaculate, to naked eye. aesthetic is immaculate
-tastes EXCELLENT, it’s PLEASING to look at, taste, conceive of
-big blunders can still happen but are massively mitigated, to the point of being minor
TOO WELL can also happen
-TOO well is usually IMPRACTICAL — however not always
-e.g. we’re all WAY OVER-EQUIPPED with CALCULATORS — the chance of us not getting access to calculator is extremely low
-or if you have BILLIONS — the chance of “life emergency’ sending you to financial troubles is near 0
-but yes usually it’s impractical:
– overprotecting oneself from events that never happen, and if they do — preventing them is costlier than absorbing them
-or building quality that exceeds a use case — BENEFITS from the added quality NOT NEARLY justify the costs — today, OR TOMORROW
i.e. even if it’s future-proof — it’s still not worth it
Now,
ANY thing you can do it poorly, do it mediocre, do it properly, do it EXCELLENTLY (robustly), and even do it too well
…the TRICK is to VIEW EVERYTHING THIS WAY
-of course PRODUCT — product you build or purchase or procure
-of course the WORK you DO
-but really of course ANYTHING YOU LAY YOUR EYES ON
-so every PROCESS too
-every SUBCOMPONENT
-every HABIT
-your ENTIRE LIFE DESIGN, EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE
so health, money, relationships, freedom, happiness, etc
-EVEN EVERY THOUGHT you have, and FEELING
You can view it philosophically, as in “excellence is excellence”, it’s ILLOGICAL to make anything LESS than PROPER, and really LESS THAN EXCELLENT AND BEAUTIFUL AND POWERFUL
otherwise what’s the point?
and what is VALUE, otherwise? If not FIRST not compromising — and then still making things better, more functional, more wonderful, more beautiful, more inspiring, more interesting, more LOVELY
In doing so, you not only solve the PROBLEM — but you also CREATE, you FULFIL yourself in the process of creativity and vision and empowerment
But another way to view it would just be PRAGMATIC
In which case – ONLY doing it EXCELLENTLY is good enough
Otherwise things break, things go to shit, and then you’re disappointed
Negativity bias makes it so that negative events are more painful than positive events are pleasant
Well the NEGATIVE is all but guaranteed to happen, unless you do everything excellently
Or rather — it is ABSOLUTELY guaranteed to happen either way — but 10 times more likely if you don’t protect yourself
The point is to do something new and inspiring and FAIL — and then it’s still inspiring and challenging and worthwhile, regardless of whether you fail
The point is not to do everything SHITTILY, POORLY — then suffer exasperation and depression when NOTHING WORKS, EVERYTHING BREAKS, and you have “NOTHING BUT BAD LUCK”
For that’s what will happen,
Unless you do things EXCELLENTLY — i.e. in a way so robust and ingenious that it can WEATHER the BAD FORTUNE — you are all but destined to watch it get obliterated
So yet again I find that anything but EXCELLENCE… makes NO sense
And it has least to do with ego,
and most to do with:
-basic common sense, practicality
-and just a MEANINGFUL LIFE PHILOSOPHY: love and beauty and creativity