The World is Mine to Win - Latest Comments

Re: Thronos Pup

Aspassia — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 05:46:09 -0000

My little crazy doggy... My friend David, I don t know you but with your post you broke my heart. This dog is not in our familly any more! Regards from Amari Valley

Re: Insights from Jeff Bezos

Domain Registration India — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 07:02:29 -0000

Nice Incredibly well written article.Thanks

Re: Insights from Jeff Bezos

Jason Crawford — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 10:06:58 -0000

Bezos doesn't blog, but he does give interviews, here are a couple for folks who want more of his wisdom:
http://www.wired.com/magazi...
http://www.businessweek.com...

By the way, the term "lean" in "lean startup" is derived from "lean manufacturing", although few people know or understand that: http://www.startuplessonsle...

Re: Sailling

David Crawford — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:59:41 -0000

Hey Mario, glad you enjoy them, and thanks for writing!

Re: Sailling

Mario Liebensteiner — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 06:27:18 -0000

David, I love reading your posts. Hope you are doing fine.
All the best from Vienna

Re: Preparation

morrillkevin — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 16:29:08 -0000

I started reading this thinking this would be an amazing Referly collection, and then low and behold it is :)

Re: Preparation

Jamie Hall — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:33:21 -0000

Hey guy! Eric and i are heading to France for three weeks in a few days and this post is great! Thx, and hope you have a blast!

-Jamie

Re: Preparation

David Crawford — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 11:43:11 -0000

Ha! Yeah, in the Mediterranean I'm hoping to wear mostly shorts or swimsuits. Long time ago, but Zev was the one who first inspired me to go beyond my Nikon Coolpix. Has he moved to DSLR yet? I'm pretty excited to post about my camera kit, but I think I should write something about the actual trip first. Coming soon...

Re: Preparation

Jennifer Barnett — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 11:34:15 -0000

That was strikingly similar to our trip to Alaska. Zev and I were gone two months, and we each had a small roll-along bag for non-photography needs. Plus Zev had an AmazonBasics bad for the camera, and we had one of those small but strangely absorbent towels. We just had a couple more long sleeve shirts and hiking boots :)

Re: Anticipation

Jon — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 17:07:38 -0000

Be safe, my friend.

WHAT'D I tell you???

Re: Anticipation

David Crawford — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:01:01 -0000

Thanks Adam! I'm in Crete now and will post again soon.

Re: Anticipation

Adam Care — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 13:49:43 -0000

David, keep up the good work. I'm excited to follow your journey these next couple of months. Hope you find those welcoming clear skies.

- Adam

Re: The future of classroom writing

Anne — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 20:15:26 -0000

hi Dave! Maybe you answered your own question, implicitly. You say that you were regurgitating and didn't have anything to say. A proper essay question absolutely involves an important question that was not covered in class - something to tease one's interest in speculating further. I felt like I had great English teachers who did that for me. I wonder if you remember any of the horrible essay questions you had?

Re: Perfectionism

Randal Vegter — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:48:03 -0000

One of the most interesting of topics to me, David. I am not a perfectionist, but I used to be, and many of my favorite people are. I've wanted to put my thoughts together on this, so thanks for the opportunity. I'm curious what seems right to you.

I think the key question is what the standards are that you are actually judging yourself by. Even when you're focused on your work, it's still easy to slip into "X had accomplished Y by my age;" dropping the context of your resources and priorities; and related traps. I think you're on the right track with your three questions, but I may be able to simplify and distinguish things a little.

Perfectionism about work

There are two questions here in judging your work, and I think a lot of perfectionism comes from not treating these as distinct:

1) Is it good?

2) How could it be better?

The Pixar example demonstrates this distinction well--while you are worrying about how something could be better, others just experience the final product.

If you can answer yes to "Is it good?" then stop and smile. You deserve to be happy with the product. Something is good when it provides the value it's supposed to and meets any other required criteria, such as cost and level of polish. I think a common problem is not defining your criteria early on (or redefining them if your scope changes). If the standard isn't clear, then you can't win.

A few interesting notes on the meaning of good:

1) As Jean and Harry have pointed out, acceptable criteria change contextually. For example, part of the Mac brand (and most brands) is that each release is better than the last in some significant way. If the 2013 MBA does not have retina display/faster speed/longer battery life or some other significant improvement, that will actually be a failure to fulfill what should be part of the criteria for the product.

2) There are many stages of development, and they all have their own criteria. A first draft of an essay isn't good when it has a coherent theme, evocative examples, a logical structure, proper grammar: those are the criteria of a final draft. The goal of a first draft is to have something to revise; it's good as a first draft as soon as it exists. Then you can revise it until it meets the criteria of a good essay.

As to the question of how something could be better, any improvements over the criteria are bonus. If you have time to keep working on the current project or iteration, then the work you do here is play time. You have the opportunity to feel even prouder of your final product--great! If you don't have time, then these additional improvements are just part of your stack to potentially add in the next project or future iterations.

Perfectionism about character

A common related form of perfectionism is perfectionism over one's character. The fact that your character leads to your results indicates how someone can jump from, "I wrote a bad line of code." to "I'm a horrible human being, unworthy of life." Here, the obsession is not with whether the product was as valuable as I can possibly imagine it being, but whether I worked as hard and as skillfully as I can possibly imagine. Again, I'd separate the questions of "Is it good?" from "How could it be better?"

I keep playing with the exact criteria for judging oneself, but I think it comes down to:

1) whether you've lived according to your priorities (I think it's important to make explicit exactly what your priorities are among the competing values in your life at any particular time), and

2) are my automatized methods getting me the results I want?

Here, I think that the same pattern holds. If you are getting results you want in concert with your priorities, then great, you have a character that is good according to the criteria you've set for your life. Be proud of it. If not, then the questions are how could it better, and is the time and effort required to make the change worth it to you right now? If not, then realistically, you have to lower your criteria for good work (at least for now).

So does any of the above seem relevant?

Re: Perfectionism

Jason Crawford — Sat, 14 Jul 2012 16:09:12 -0000

In Jean Moroney's Thinking Lab she has had a few articles/teleclasses about perfectionism and how to cope with it. There's nothing online, just the private newsletter for subscribers and her lectures. If you ask her she might send you an article.

Re: Knowing your stuff

Jon — Sat, 26 May 2012 10:28:00 -0000

Quick question: Why do you keep going below 34th st?

Re: You can only eat one

Jon — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:41:13 -0000

Well said, David! Say, what happened to all those useful bags that I left on your desk?

Re: Ulysses

David Crawford — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:23:27 -0000

Glad you liked it!

Re: Ulysses

Jon — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:53:51 -0000

Great poem, David. Thanks for introducing me to it!

Re: Nobody knows you’re a dog

Doug Weaver — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:29:27 -0000

David, Honored by your comments and hoping to have the chance to meet you some time soon. Writing "The Drift" has given me a lot of satisfaction over the past ten years and the fact that it can help me connect with someone new on so profound a level is invigorating. Look forward to connecting. ~Doug Weaver dweaver@upstreamgroup.com

Re: QuietWrite

David Crawford — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 16:52:31 -0000

Ha, I didn't realize it got any attention. Thanks for mentioning it, and thanks for commenting!

Re: QuietWrite

dasSuiGeneris — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 03:02:10 -0000

Quiet Write is a really neat utility! I think I first heard about it on Twitter, not sure. I have been thinking about reviewing this and other similar utilities available, but not sure if I'll get around to it. Oh, and I was sent here from Quiet Write's Twitter feed, they had mentioned you wrote a piece about them. Nice Work! ~das~

Re: Love in the Afternoon

Jenni — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:55:49 -0000

Yes. Cute, but creepy :)

Re: Sailing in Seattle

David Crawford — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:54:16 -0000

Thanks Rex! You should come visit Seattle sometime, we have lots of lakes.

Re: Sailing in Seattle

Rex — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:37:20 -0000

B~E~A~Utiful scenery~:) I haven't seen a lake for a long time...