I’ve had this baggage tag on my backpack for a year now — which I used as an impromptu surface for an important “not to self” that I haven’t had an opportunity to transcribe. But now I must do it because I’m certain to lose my paper tag!

What does it say? Well, there’s two sides being defined here. Let’s see what they are by first using a little digital enhancement:

Perfection | Imperfection |
Until it’s ready | It’s never fully ready |
Infinite time | Finite time |
Infinite money | Finite money |
Productivity low and slow | Productivity high and fast |
Master continuously learning through failure and applying it to perfecting their work. | New Master knows to learn through from how folks respond to their unfinished work. |
I think my key takeaway is that both kinds of masters iterate — except one iterates privately versus publicly. There’s upsides and downsides to the difference with this approach.
Classical Perfection | Agile Imperfection |
Highest fidelity and deepest approach can at times completely alter and refigure reality. | Lowest fidelity and iterative approach can at times pander to an “average” set of POVs. |
This approach is expensive and high risk. | This approach is inexpensive and low risk. |
So what this says to me is that you think of your portfolio of activities as needing to include a percentage of “classical perfection” versus “agile imperfection” — and you wouldn’t want to go all-in with just one direction. —JM
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