2024-07-31 09:42:27 +01:00
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---
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title: "Embracing imperfection"
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2024-08-01 15:30:26 +01:00
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date: 2024-07-31
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2024-07-31 09:42:27 +01:00
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draft: false
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---
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Lately, I've been doing some exploratory work, both with my pet
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projects and as part of my job, and I've struggled with it a bit more
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than I expected. It could be because of my personal circumstances (I'm
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more tired and distracted than usual), but I think it has more to do
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with self-awareness and how it affects my approach to problem-solving.
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Back in my college days, I was much more relaxed about how I tackled
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my assignments. There wasn't a lot of consistency, but the process
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more or less followed these steps:
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- Read the problem a couple of times until you fully understand it.
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- Draft a possible solution, iterate a couple of times until it looks
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good enough.
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- Do something else and forget about the problem completely until the
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last responsible moment (or just the last possible moment, as
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responsibility was sometimes lacking).
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- Sit down and fully focus on the problem until you solve it, often
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for more hours than was healthy.
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This wasn't the best way to get through college, but it was the one I
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opted for. As imperfect as it was, it only required me to focus on the
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problem while I was working on it, I could free my mind during the
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rest of the time. And most importantly, _it worked_. I got good grades
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and enjoyed most of the time I spent learning.
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Now, back to the present day, things have changed a bit. I'm older
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(duh), I have more experience, and I'm much more aware of all the
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things I don't know or am not an expert on. So every time a problem
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comes my way, my brain uses the first cycles to diligently list all
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the areas I need to explore and all the books I should read before
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even thinking about starting to solve it.
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This should help me have a well-informed, structured, and reasonable
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amount of knowledge so I'm able to solve the problem to the best of my
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ability, right?
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...
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right?
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Well, wrong. Usually, there are two possible paths from here: either I
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have a proper amount of time to invest, so I start studying and
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building that knowledge, and at some point, I surrender to the
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evidence that I can't learn everything about the subject before the
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deadline inevitably arrives; or, if I don't have much time, I have to
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come to terms with the fact that I'm going to face the problem knowing
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that I'm not ready, which is basically the same outcome as in the
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first case but without even starting to prepare.
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This might be obvious for most people: we are not perfect, we are not
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expected to know everything about something to be able to work on
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it. Not only is imperfection normal, even failing is. But lately, the
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fear of making mistakes, of not doing everything to the best of my
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ability, has been an issue for me more often than not. Maybe it's a
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mild case of [analysis paralysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis), who knows.
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I have to go back to my university days and remember the mindset I had
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then: that most of the time, the stakes are not that high, that good
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and honest effort is great even if it's not perfect, and that there
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are other (most of the time more important) things in life besides the
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problem that I currently have in front of me.
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