I often describe myself as highly analytical and as someone who works very systematically. To be honest that’s just CV code for saying I’m a world class procrastrinator. If something needs to be done you can trust me to find a way to work hard doing anything but the actual thing. Often accompanied by the words “if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing correctly”.
Of course, as Freud would have predicted, this can probably be traced back to a fear of mine. One of missed opportunities and wasted effort. I don’t want to pour my soul into something only to have it pay off just mere percentages of what it could have. I want the maximum Return Of Investment and spending more time in preparation seems to be the sensible thing to do if I can then multiply the outcome by a factor of X.
This has led to maaany abandoned projects, perfected to the point where they will never see the light of day. I believe I need to remind myself of some basic math.
0 * 1337 = 0
Multiplication by zero yields zero. Tripling your conversion rate still equals nothing if there’s no one to convert. Making your app load twice as fast doesn’t help anyone if no one is using it.
I want this to be my mantra. If you never complete or ship something, it doesn’t matter how well it would have been shipped. Nothing is as much a missed opportunity as something never attempted.
Being analytical and working systematically is all well and good but let’s not waste our efforts where it doesn’t matter. Let’s put something shitty out there and work hard to improve it.