Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Perfectionism

“Done is better than perfect” — which Facebook has plastered all over the walls of their Menlo Park headquarters. That’s not to excuse shoddy work. Rather, the idea is to give engineers permission to complete cycles of work and learn quickly instead of being held hostage by an unattainable sense of perfection.

The word “perfect” has a Latin root; literally, it means “made well” or “done thoroughly.” Another translation would be “complete.” And yet today, we use it to mean flawless. If you must pursue perfection, at least use the former definition rather than the (unattainable) latter.

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