I'm writing to think, learn, and remember in public. I'll be here everyday.
Perfection is an unattainable target.
Perfection only exists in a lab with ideal conditions, a controlled environment, and a finite set of known inputs.
Perfectionism is a form of Resistance. Avoidance. It can keep you in your comfort zone. Perfectionism can help you feel better about not trying.
Toward perfection, however, is not the same as perfectionism.
Toward perfection is toward better. And toward better is how you make a difference.
You know the kind. You could also follow it with a “SMH.” I can hear my friend John yelling, “Dumbass!”
Here’s a good one.
I asked ChatGPT to extract and list out the Pixar movie rankings from this USA Today article (totally public, totally visible).
For brevity’s sake, I won’t list all 29 here, but here’s the article’s top 10:
First, where’s Cars? But we’re not arguing over the list here…
Here’s ChatGPT’s version of its extracted list:
A simple, concrete prompt. An easy mission.
🙄 🤦‍♂️
Spoiler Alert: No, unless…
Like all tools — especially brain-enhancing tools like encyclopedias, the internet, spreadsheets, and your smart colleagues — LLMs come with a warning:
AI is not a substitute for you.
MIT just published a study indicating that using AI for writing tasks significantly reduces neural engagement and memory retention over time, leading to what researchers call “cognitive debt.”
The AI doomsayers are holding it up as evidence of how AI is making us dumb.
Well, are you dumber now because your phone has your friends’ contact information? Are you dumber now because you can Google “how to fill out my 1040” (I was so tempted to write “hos long to die in cold”)? Are you dumber now because your colleagues know QuickBooks better than you, so you ask them to look over your work?
It’s not a question of whether our tools are making us dumber. That’s a bad question.
It’s a question of whether we allow our tools to make us dumber.
And that’s up to you. Not AI.
Sometimes, it really is just a fork.
But also, that one fork might have changed everything.
One fork became the spoon, bowl, and three coffee mugs sitting in the sink. Then you wiped down the counter, which led to wiping the cabinet doors. While wiping them down, you could no longer just close the door on the dysfunctional storage container cabinet. Before you knew it, not only was the kitchen clean on the surfaces, but also under the covers.
The full job. The one you knew needed to be done. Was done.
All because of that one fork.
Somedays you just gotta find that fork and take care of it.
Ready, Fire, Aim
Build the bridge as you cross it.
Leap before you look.
Measure twice, cut once.
Have all your ducks in a row.
Look before you leap.
So which is it?
Well, that depends.
On what you’re building.
On what’s at stake.
On who’s involved.
The trick isn’t choosing one over the other. It’s recognizing how to be the right amount ahead.
“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”
June 19, 1865.
That’s the day when Union Major General Gordon Granger, along with 2000 troops, arrived in Galveston, TX, and announced the end of slavery.
But this was over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Of course, information traveled and filtered into the masses slower in the 1860’s. No internet, radio, TV, or automobiles. Not everyone heard.
One could blame it on that. And that would be a lie.
The system didn’t change because it wasn’t ready to change. It didn’t want to change.
It’s always the system.
We celebrate Juneteenth not because of the declaration of the end of slavery. We celebrate it because this is the day it arrived.
We live in a big, beautiful world.
So many interesting things. So many unknown things. So much to learn.
So much to be curious about.
Yet, The World tries to steal your curiosity.
“Don’t think about that. We’ll take care of it.”
“Don’t wonder about that. We’ll do it for you.”
“Don’t look into that. We’ll tell you how it is.”
One quality that will keep you young, make you happy, and help you remain useful is curiosity.
Never stop thinking. Never stop wondering. Never stop looking into it.
Figure it out.
Deep down, you know.
You know that more outrage doesn’t help you. It helps them.
You know that more scrolling doesn’t help you. It helps them.
You know that being more offended doesn’t help you. It helps them.
If your goal is to help them, then by all means.
But if not, maybe less is better.
I’m sure, or at least I hope, you know the flow state.
It’s that beautiful moment of full immersion, where time vanishes, doubt disappears, and the doing comes effortlessly.
For me, it can happen when writing code, writing words, or building a spreadsheet. But also, I can find it when sharpening the knives, fixing the lawn mower, or wrestling with a jigsaw puzzle.
I don’t find it every time I do something on that list or every day. But I’m always in pursuit of the flow.
How do we summon it?
It’s not a sudden spark or a lightning bolt. It doesn’t hit in the shower or the middle of the night.
It shows up when we show up.
Steven Pressfield talks about the muse and how she shows up because you summon her. She doesn’t show up because she feels like it. You’re not waiting around until she shows up. You sit down and do the work. That’s when she shows up.
The Flow follows effort. It’s a pattern. A rhythm. Deliberate.
The Flow finds you because you put in the effort.
Show up. Do the work. Make bad stuff. Get punched in the face. Make it again. And again.
Summon The Flow.
People at my age often stagnate.
And just as often, it’s on purpose. They’re tired, or feel like they’ve earned where they are, or feel done.
I don’t blame people for this. We’re 30 years into our careers and probably 20-30 years into family life. We’ve been there and done that. We’ve figured some stuff out.
However, you’re also never done.
The world keeps shifting. Technology and culture keep marching forward. Changing around us, if not with us.
You keep shifting. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. Whether you’ve embraced it or not.
You’re still becoming, whether by default or design.
The question is: Are you happy with who you’re becoming?
