dispatches from the new world of work

100 Ways to Succeed #125:

Any Job Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Poorly!

Of course I don't mean it (quite) the way it sounds—hey, I'm an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist.

But consider, relative to a big/big-ish project, not investing your energy in finishing up your current sub-project, then moving rote-like to the next step. Instead, start, in a half-assed way, two or three or four other tasks/sub-projects just to see how the overall thing feels and where it might go that's unexpected based on three or four or five tasks in motion at the same time. In other words, just keep doin' stuff—and see what the stuff you've done "feels like" on the whole. (There will be time for polish later.)

(For me, in working on a book, it can mean plunging into the next chapter before I even have a decent rough draft of the current chapter—when I have 4 or 5 or 8 or 9 half-assed chapter drafts in process I can begin to figure out what the book as a whole is actually about—or what it might be about that I hadn't imagined.)

Tom Peters posted this on 06/18/08.

Comments

It’s like me with any new appliance in the house, garden, garage or office. My motto is always ‘If all else fails, read the instructions’

Good tries and failures are what it’s all about surely?

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 18, 2008 5:05 PM

I learned this the hard way at a two day weekend training seminar on graphic design. (You get three guesses where a dyed in the wool technical engineer got the idea to check out this soft design stuff...and the first two don't count.) It was during the exercise on how to storyboard some design concepts. Of course I knew that my first layout was the right one, but I went ahead with the exercise and drafted a handful of other ideas to fill the time. After the fourth mandatory storyboard, I realized that my mind had wandered to a completely different design space. By the end of the exercise my first "right" design wasn't even in the top ten of valid choces.

Storyboarding in visual communication is a quick, small, poorly built example of what the design could be. And the act of creating these poorly made storyboards make it possible to discard the chaff and realize the truly innovative design worth doing.

Posted by Jack at June 19, 2008 1:31 AM

Yes, agree Trevor. During my college-days, I never recommended tuitions (other than college classes) to my friends for the simple reason that the tuition teacher is going to spoon-feed you to solve a problem / work a case and offer you simple / easy solutions (right away!). However, if you were to solve on your own, you would make a dozen mistakes & probably research much more than is required BUT ATLEAST you know a dozen ways of NOT solving a problem! Ofcourse, on the flip-side – it eats into your time but I figured out, it was worth it!

Posted by Sriram Kannan at June 19, 2008 4:26 AM

1. Perfection kills creativity.

2. Sometimes jumping to something else can stimulate "neural connections" to new ideas and perspectives to the first unpolished task.

3. Fresh perspectives can often be found by taking something from one field or project and asking how it might apply to another!

(Or at least I tell myself these things to find value in my tangential thinking! Attention deficit...or creative wandering?)

Posted by Manoj Pawar at June 21, 2008 12:55 PM

I believe the quote is actually from G.K. Chesterton, who wrote "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." And I do believe he meant it exactly the way it sounds.

My understanding is this: if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing - period. Whether the outcome is perfect or not, or even (dare I say it here?) whether the outcome is excellent or not, when a thing is worth doing, it's simply worth doing.

Thus, the fear of failure or the fear of flaws ought not stop us from charging in and having a go at the do-worthy Thing.

Posted by The Dan Ward at June 21, 2008 7:30 PM