> I’d start pieces, make reasonable progress, and then spend hours making irrelevant changes no one would notice getting more and more confused about what I was doing, and whether the piece I was working on was any good
Even the greats can succumb to this. The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson got caught in this trap when working on the band’s Smile album in 1966. He intended it to be a entire album in the modular cut/paste vein that Good Vibrations used (which was still pretty novel at the time). He spent nearly a year experimenting, tinkering, and retooling to the point of creative paralysis. Having to release something, the entire project was scrapped and the original project became something of legend among aficionados. It wasn’t actually “completed” until 2004 when Wilson was finally able to revisit the project. Funnily enough the big motivator to finish the project was a deadline — just like the article recommended. In Wilson’s case, it was a commitment to perform the material at a series of sold out live shows.
While I’m not a musician, I certainly understand the desire for some measure of perfection in my software or hardware projects — many times to the point of creative paralysis and eventual abandonment. It’s said that “shipping is a feature” and sometimes you just have to settle for “good enough” if you ever want to share your creations with others.
Even the greats can succumb to this. The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson got caught in this trap when working on the band’s Smile album in 1966. He intended it to be a entire album in the modular cut/paste vein that Good Vibrations used (which was still pretty novel at the time). He spent nearly a year experimenting, tinkering, and retooling to the point of creative paralysis. Having to release something, the entire project was scrapped and the original project became something of legend among aficionados. It wasn’t actually “completed” until 2004 when Wilson was finally able to revisit the project. Funnily enough the big motivator to finish the project was a deadline — just like the article recommended. In Wilson’s case, it was a commitment to perform the material at a series of sold out live shows.
While I’m not a musician, I certainly understand the desire for some measure of perfection in my software or hardware projects — many times to the point of creative paralysis and eventual abandonment. It’s said that “shipping is a feature” and sometimes you just have to settle for “good enough” if you ever want to share your creations with others.