Seriously. This is really just a longer way of saying the maxim “don’t get it right, get it done” or how one shouldn’t be paralysed by the search for perfection. But it’s an interesting longer way:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot”albeit a perfect one”to get an “A”.

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work”and learning from their mistakes”the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

What 50 Pounds of Clay Can Teach You About Design – Chanpory Rith, Medium

I think the professor was a bit of a git, knowing that half the class would fail – and which half – yet cheerily lab-ratting them. But I am now very much of the opinion that getting a thing done is important: I find it immensely satisfying to think of something and then make it real.

I’d say, then, that I fully support this idea of saying nuts to perfection, let’s get on with it, except that I’m not. I read a book of flash fiction by an interesting guy who had spoken at an event about getting on with writing, about getting flash fiction done. His big point was that it’s easy and I’m afraid that the writer’s ease is not my concern. The final material is and though one can presume that he’s getting better each time he writes a flash fiction book, as a reader I just saw text that wasn’t very engaging. Great ideas, just not quite there somehow.

So there you are: please sort this out, quality vs quantity. Off you go, let me know how you get on.