I have a tendency to be a perfectionist. What does that mean? It means I sometimes spend longer than I need to on a project, wanting to make everything perfect. I'm going to explore this perfectionism using this blog, writing some shorter, less perfect articles.
For example, right now I feel some resistance to publishing this article, because it's very short. I'm tempted to write some extra sections, about perfectionism in general, how perfectionism turns good ideas into delayed projects, etc.
As a matter of fact, I just DELETED two paragraphs with examples of perfectionism. I was going to talk a little about perfectionism and how it's the bane of computer programmers, writers, researchers, and generally anyone who does anything creative. I was gonna write about my grades in college and how I became a better person overall when I stopped caring so much about them. But, the whole point is get to the point more quickly, and to generate creative content without taking so much time.
Lately, I've been really busy, and have to play triage with my projects. If I'm gonna spend two hours typing up an article, some other project will have to suffer.
I'm going to experiment with publishing some shorter articles for awhile here at Glowing Face Man. I feel such resistance to publishing this article as it is (under 400 words!) Well, my motto is, "go towards danger". That includes anything that feels dangerous. I have all this resistance to publishing this short article, but I'll fight the resistance and publish it anyway. This makes me a stronger, better person.
Here it is. The shortest GFM article to date (although, Fighting Music Addiction: Week 2 is close, at 476 words). Now I have to go give my students a midterm!
Here are some other articles I wrote, most of them much longer than this one.
Running On The Treadmill
30 Day Article-A-Day Challenge Completed!
Training Self-Discipline
The Higher Infinite
For example, right now I feel some resistance to publishing this article, because it's very short. I'm tempted to write some extra sections, about perfectionism in general, how perfectionism turns good ideas into delayed projects, etc.
As a matter of fact, I just DELETED two paragraphs with examples of perfectionism. I was going to talk a little about perfectionism and how it's the bane of computer programmers, writers, researchers, and generally anyone who does anything creative. I was gonna write about my grades in college and how I became a better person overall when I stopped caring so much about them. But, the whole point is get to the point more quickly, and to generate creative content without taking so much time.
Lately, I've been really busy, and have to play triage with my projects. If I'm gonna spend two hours typing up an article, some other project will have to suffer.
I'm going to experiment with publishing some shorter articles for awhile here at Glowing Face Man. I feel such resistance to publishing this article as it is (under 400 words!) Well, my motto is, "go towards danger". That includes anything that feels dangerous. I have all this resistance to publishing this short article, but I'll fight the resistance and publish it anyway. This makes me a stronger, better person.
Here it is. The shortest GFM article to date (although, Fighting Music Addiction: Week 2 is close, at 476 words). Now I have to go give my students a midterm!
Here are some other articles I wrote, most of them much longer than this one.
Running On The Treadmill
30 Day Article-A-Day Challenge Completed!
Training Self-Discipline
The Higher Infinite
Posts
2 comments:
Hey, you do what you gotta do!
Your comment about triage reminds me of that Steve Pavlina article where he talks about "triaging ruthlessly" in order to take on super-heavy courseloads in college.
I always have to remind myself of that. I'm a perfectionist too, and I hate putting myself out into the world at anything less than 100%.
If you ever have the time, I'd be interested in reading a second article on perfectionism in which you talk about your grades--specifically, how you managed to shift the way you think!
I'm a college senior now, and this semester will be the first to destroy my perfect 4.0. It makes me angry and upset, and the logical part of my brain knows that these feelings are illogical. But, perfectionism! It'll get you every time!
So, to make a long comment short, here's the tl;dr version:
-Could you write about how to fight perfectionism? And yay for shorter posts more often. Good luck with your classes! :)
Jes,
I got through undergrad university with a 4.0 (U of Az), and in the last semester part of that involved dropping a course (game theory) because I thought I was heading toward a B. A pity, since game theory is everywhere and everyone is interested in it, mathematician or not!
With my 4.0, I didn't get much enthusiasm from grad schools. Applied to 8, got accepted by 2 (one of which was U of Az). I think that if a school sees 4.0, it might even ring an alarm bell, "This guy has no life, or he's autistic".
Things in undergrad which you aren't officially graded on include: partying, meeting & having fun with cute girls/boys, making friends & connections. Ask yourself, if your transcript included grades on those things as well, what would your GPA be? :) (Maybe still 4.0, in that case, congratulations!)
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