Everything is a tradeoff

I have insanely high expectations when it comes to my own work. If something can be improved, then it should be improved, period. As a kid I was expected to max every grade and every exam or to win every competition, and more often than not, I actually did.

I left school ages ago, but a part of me still thinks like this little kid. I need to max every single requirement anyone might have of me, even if no one is requesting it explicitly. As long as there’s room for improvement, I need to improve it. If I turned it in knowing there’s still work to do, I’d be asking for rejection and criticism.

In school it might have been possible to win at everything. In real life, this is a straight path to depression and burnout. There’s infinitely more things that need to be done than time to do all of them. I need to choose what matters most and ship it, even if other parts will be buggy, unprofessional or just ugly as hell.

Yes, people may and will criticize the parts that are ugly, unprofessional and buggy. This doesn’t mean I made a wrong choice.

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