👋 Hey there! My name is Abhishek. Welcome to a new edition of The Sunday Wisdom! This is the best way to learn new things with the least amount of effort.
It’s a collection of weekly explorations and inquiries into many curiosities, such as business, human nature, society, and life’s big questions. My primary goal is to give you some new perspective to think about things.
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Q: Is there any downside in being a perfectionist?
Today, let’s talk about getting things done, for real, and not just talk about getting things done. Before going any further, I want to mention that I’ve got a serious disdain for the so-called “perfectionist” people. These are the folks who do the least but preach the most.
In practice, perfectionism is either an excuse to explain why you can’t get something done, or it’s a way (for bad managers) to justify why employees should work harder. It’s stupid and callous, and—as we’ll soon discover—not a good strategy, especially if you want to get things done.
First, imperfection is our natural state. It’s the way we were born, and it’s the way we live. Perfectionism is an artificial construct that constricts, rigidifies, and conforms our behaviour/effort/result to an unreasonable (and unattainable) standard for no rational reason.
Second, perfection is a commodity sold via ads, motivational speeches/books by a marketer who has zero real-life experience. Any teacher, leader, manager, boss, parent who demand perfection isn’t doing a good job.
Contrary to popular belief, the opposite of perfection isn’t imperfection, it’s forward momentum. At its core, forward momentum is prioritising being better over being best and getting a solution over getting the solution. This means doing at least one pushup if you can’t do five, going for a two-minute run instead of a thirty-minute run, and going the distance even if you won’t win.
In other words, ignoring perfection doesn’t rule out doing things well, but it takes away the crippling fear of not doing well. Its obvious benefits are less stress and more results. Who wouldn’t want that?!
To give you a personal example, I never aim to write the best essay ever—that’ll make my readers lose their minds or break the internet—whenever I sit down to write every week. First, that’s unrealistic. Second, I don’t need that kind of pressure. I want to enjoy the process of writing. So, I give myself a smaller goal: write a decent essay in the given time, be mindful it isn’t a total waste of the reader’s time, and above all, publish it no matter how bad it is.
I’ve written a tonne of bad essays—work that I’m not at all happy with. But then I’ve also written a tonne of good ones—which wouldn’t have happened had I aimed for perfection every time. Even Sachin Tendulkar has had a tonne of ducks in his career, who am I?!
I am imperfect, all my work is imperfect. But, like all creators, I thrive on imperfection. It doesn’t mean I’m not trying to get better. I am (for sure)! But getting better isn’t even close to aiming for perfection. Perfection is a fictitious ideal that cannot be practically achieved—and in my opinion if it can’t be achieved, there’s not much point in caring about it.
As long as there’s forward momentum in our lives, as long as we are getting better every day, as long as we are going to bed smarter than when we woke up, as long as we aren’t repeating mistakes, we are good.
We’ll never have the perfect life, the perfect partner, the perfect parents, the perfect friends, the perfect process, the perfect workplace, or the perfect business—and that’s okay. Wishing things to be perfect is stupid. They cannot be and, more importantly, they don’t have to be.
If you look closely at a human life, this is what it’s all about. There is neither any perfect plan nor any perfect scenario because “life” happens. As helpful it is to be able to plan, it’s equally important to adapt to changing circumstances and problems. It’s important to understand that we will be continuously impacted by imperfection—from ourselves, the world, and others. If we should learn anything from this, it’s how to live with imperfection, not despite it.
Interesting Finds
Tree-planting is perceived as a feel-good cure-all for global warming. Donald Trump touted tree-planting while working to eliminate emissions regulations during his presidency. Also, such large-scale initiatives are anything but simple. Popular campaigns to plant 1 million trees are announced to much fanfare but often fall short of their goals. Many trees don’t survive, or thrive, or deliver their promised benefits.
A China that badly wants to change the world but can’t even change an uppity neighbour. China, a rising power with 1.4 billion people and a $14.7 trillion economy, should trample a country of 26 million with an economy less than one-tenth the size. But in a world wrapped in interdependent supply chains and complex political connections, smaller countries can wield a surprising armoury of weapons. China finally discovers the limits of its power.
How to love watching TV shows really fast. “At 1.25x speed, the dialogue on TV shows doesn’t sound comically hastened. To my ears, the speech just flows more freely, with an artificial layer of added pep. Still, I’m not an absolutist in my accelerative proclivities.”
The ability to connect different forms of transport forms an internet of motion. The future of urban transport will not be based on a single technology, but on a diverse mixture of transport systems, knitted together by smartphone technology. Collectively, ride-hailing, micromobility and on-demand car rental offer new approaches to transport that provide the convenience of a private car without the need to own one, for a growing fraction of journeys.
Not all new Indian cinema was born in Bombay, Calcutta or Madras. One pioneer helped build the Kannada movie world in Mysore. In the year of his birth centenary, this is the story of Shankar Singh.
What I’m Reading
We all step in shit from time to time. We hit roadblocks, we fuck up, we get fucked, we get sick, we don’t get what we want, we cross thousands of “could have done better”s and “wish that wouldn’t have happened”s in life. Stepping in shit is inevitable, so let’s either see it as good luck, or figure out how to do it less often.
— Matthew McConaughey, Greenlights
Before You Go…
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I’ll see you next Sunday,
Abhishek 👋