We all hear of things like:
good is the enemy of the best
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.
But have we truly thought of the consequences of thinking in this way? When we consider project management, and our own approach to life, how often do we think of taking things away? As the new year approaches, we think in resolutions, which are things we add, but how about things we take away?
Likewise when dealing with projects, we often think in terms of “what is the end goal - what is the success criteria” - which unfortunately changes like changing goal-posts. Perhaps instead we should think in the negation, what would be the absolute essence in terms of what we would deem failure, and do anything that does not lead to failure. Having that feedback loop might be a better approach, though far more difficult to measure. This is because as humans, we like saying we are “done” or “complete” with a task, rather than thinking in much more simple terms.
On Being Human
What is the trait of someone we should strive to be? Do we mark it by their achievements? Or should we instead mark it by their failings? My belief is that we should mark our failings, and our response to them. Because that ultimately is how we think about character.
To understand what I mean, it is easy the say “we have completed a task”. But it is much harder to continually perform a task. For example, if we aim to lose weight - it is easy to say, “I went to the gym today”, but it is much harder to say “I went to the gym consistently in the last week”.
It is in this thinking that feedback loops should instead focus on the negation. Afterall there is much merit and celebration to forgive yourself for doing something consistently despite failing to meet set tasks. We will always fail to meet set tasks - thats why people move goal posts! However, failure to be consistent is perhaps a greater sin.