Oh how wonderful the word “perfect” sounds, and how many problems and difficulties it creates.
Yes, obviously when we eat a meal or hear a piece of music or see a painting where everything is just right, we exclaim IT IS PERFECT. And all is well with the world.
That´s not what I am talking about. Finding and discovering perfection can be wonderful. No, I mean striving for perfection. Wishing for, longing for, waiting for perfection.
Especially when it comes to artistic creation this can be a paralyzing, debilitating impulse. Also when it comes to interpersonal contacts and also more practical ventures.
The fear of doing wrong is an important part of this. Especially when it concerns a new field or person or project, you don´t know what is right and wrong. You discover it along the way.
I guess you will learn less if you try to do right than if you try do wrong (or just don´t care).
If you do wrong and things go wrong, you have learned your lesson. If you do wrong and it turns out that you did right, you also learned your lesson. But if you are lukewarm in between, then the results will be inconclusive. Did you do it right or wrong, or what?
Confusion, all stemming from this perfection-striving.
In cybernetic theory the guided missile or torpedo “reacts to “criticism” just enough to correct course and keeps going forward toward the target. This course will be … a series of zig-zags.”
I believe a correction of course, however strange it might seem, could not well be wrong.
