An Imperfectionist Manifesto
Why work so hard to get it not quite right?
The Frontier Psychiatrists newsletter is health-related. I tend to prefer terminology that isn't jargon— for example, “sanity.” I prefer to “mental health.” No one's trying to re-imagine or democratize sanity. Today's post is about sanity— and one of the ways I strive to maintain it.
I am not a perfectionist. It's not because I don't love perfect things. Unbelievable perfectionists create some of my favorite art. David Foster Wallace, Sylvia Plath, and Kurt Cobain all crafted achingly beautiful art. They are all dead, one will also note. Is there something toxic about perfectionism?
I'm not good enough to do any of the things that I admire at the level of my idols. I have not had the time or the resources to do so. I work at Fermata, Acacia Clinics, iRxReminder, NTAPconnection, and more—who has the time?! I believe there is another way. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book Outliers (affiliate link!) about how relentless practice gets us to exceptional performance. One of the things about practice is that it is, by definition, imperfect. I recently wrote about the objectives and key results methodology (OKRs)— a goal-setting approach in which being perfect is getting it wrong.
Perfectionism has a built-in problem. At a certain point, something is done, and it's perfect or not. Imperfectionism—paired with the concept of striving towards relentlessly ambitious goals—means that nothing should ever be perfect, but everything possible should be done. It's more “shots on goal” with fewer holes in one.
I champion imperfection— and try to live it— so that I get more things done. This newsletter is not perfect. I believe my readers can strongly attest to that. There have been typos. There have been—and will be— grammar issues. Not every sentence will be short and declarative. And yet, when people ask me how I write every single day, the answer is that I am committed to getting something done, not getting it perfect.
Perfect is very much the enemy of Good Enough. There will be fewer good things if the only things allowed are perfect. This newsletter is one example of my dedication imperfectionism. I have another example from my life for how you can put this sort of thing into practice.
I'm a musician. And I'm a recording engineer. I make podcasts. I like recording music and audio of any kind, and there is a temptation to get it just right. The kind of music that I tend to enjoy is highly crafted and pretty close to perfect. I'm not good enough to do that, and I have a day job. I also shackled myself to this insane daily cadence of newsletter writing!
I also recently recorded and released another album. It’s my 11th release, according to the internet. Here are the 8 rules to enforce imperfectionism that I set for myself in the process of making this album, called “Perfect is the Enemy of the Good:”
Every song was allowed one take for any given instrument or vocal.
Only one was allowed for any part.
I didn't record the part to my satisfaction and didn't get to re-record it. I had to write a new part.
The vocals and melodies were improvised in real-time.
(Virtually) all the lyrics were improvised in real-time (not including “cover songs” written by other artists).
None of the mixes were finished or perfected. The “mix” that happened at the end of the recording is what you hear.
In short, one take, first take, only take is what I allowed myself.
I played it all myself.
I started this process, thinking I would go back and re-record things. These would be the rough demo; I would get it right later. Very rigid rules were to get a demo quality done. I may still go back and do it better. But I realized that, as a collection, these songs were an imperfectionist manifesto. It's about being good enough. Assembled humans, I present…
Now you can hear it, follow it, and play it on repeat so I can make an extra $0.0000003 per stream. More importantly, share with friends or enemies in your life! And, of course, consider committing to an imperfectionist agenda in your own life.
Thanks for reading….and today, listening!
What do you make of the notion that perfectionism is a trauma response?