Mostly we don’t do stuff because at the moment of ‘almost doing’, it seems to overwhelm us. Why? Because we fast-forward ahead and imagine the final product and we suspect strongly that it won’t be as good as what we had earlier imagined when we set out to do that thing. Imagine the insanity of this- comparing two imaginary things and then giving up something real as a result?
Yet I do it all the time. Not just with creative things. Also with routine matters such as invoices. I can’t face the task because it appears more work than it should. In my perfect world invoices should be sent telepathically. In fact they take very little time, just as cleaning up takes very little time when you do it straight after making the mess. As all parents know. But it isn’t perfect, so it doesn’t always get done.
Perfection, again, screwing things up.
We live in a world over attentive to presentation. Instead of looking for the grain of sustenance we ‘judge’ how ‘finished’ something is. That is, how well it is presented.
But our idea of ‘finished’ is just a bit of cultural baggage. Editing can go on forever. I sometimes think time is the only editor you really need to consider.
I’ve found the iterative approach of the internet, posting up improved versions, as I go on, as one way out of the perfection trap.
I wanted, in my perfect world, to make this longer but I’d rather post it now.