Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

    I have always liked the old truism , that perfection is the enemy of good enough , or is it the other way around ? Anyway , I have found that truism to be true in the case of my hobby pursuits. When I was much younger, I would strive for perfection , but usually when I would get a project close to my satisfaction , I would work on it a little bit more to make it perfect , and end up worse off for it . Nowadays, at my advanced age , I no longer strive for perfection , but instead am satisfied with a high grade of good enough . I don't think that I have given up , but have just gotten wiser . Any thoughts ?

D. E. Jones

    I have always liked the old truism , that perfection is the enemy of good enough , or is it the other way around ? Anyway , I have found that truism to be true in the case of my hobby pursuits. When I was much younger, I would strive for perfection , but usually when I would get a project close to my satisfaction , I would work on it a little bit more to make it perfect , and end up worse off for it . Nowadays, at my advanced age , I no longer strive for perfection , but instead am satisfied with a high grade of good enough . I don't think that I have given up , but have just gotten wiser . Any thoughts ?

D. E. Jones

I used the "quote" feature because you have a lot of information here I wanted to be able to access it while typing my response. My response is most often I strive for better than I did last time, I have done many of the same modifications to items and strive not so much for perfection (because I'm not really sure what that is) but really well done. You can spends hours...or days fretting over the smallest of details, some machinist spend 10 years to build an engine, my point is it can always be made better. I strive for durability, dependability, & ease of maintenance, And to be fun to play with. I enjoy the process of the build and the challenge of the project, once done to my satisfaction, I don't usually play with it much Afterwords. Just my perspective.

 I agree Bruce . It's seems funny to me, that as I get older , my attention span gets shorter , and I like small quick projects . I don't like to spend more than a few hours doing anything . I guess it may be that modern affliction called instant gratification . That being said , I still believe in doing a nice solid high grade of good enough .

D. E. jones

    I have always liked the old truism , that perfection is the enemy of good enough , or is it the other way around ? Anyway , I have found that truism to be true in the case of my hobby pursuits. When I was much younger, I would strive for perfection , but usually when I would get a project close to my satisfaction , I would work on it a little bit more to make it perfect , and end up worse off for it . Nowadays, at my advanced age , I no longer strive for perfection , but instead am satisfied with a high grade of good enough . I don't think that I have given up , but have just gotten wiser . Any thoughts ?

D. E. Jones

This June I will reach the 3rd time "full aged"... have I gotten wiser...? I'm not shure... 
As I'm collecting and restoring mainly vintage cast metal workshop accessories, I always strive for a high grade of autheticity and originality.
I have seen and I own some "perfect" restored workshop model machines... stripped down to bare metal, sanded, new paint, new nickel plating, polished... with one word "overrestored".
Most manufacturers back then did a good job, but they never invested time and effort to offer "perfect" models, it would have been too expensive and time wasting to get out this result.
If I wanted to collect "new" model machines, I would buy brandnew boxed WILESCO or MAMOD accessories... I don't own even one of them!
I like the vintage appearance and patina of the 100 to 150 years old model machines, the look of a machine that got a good maintenance over all the time but shows its history.
Restoring an old model machine I go into details, but no further than the manufacturer would have done.

Greetings from Solingen,Germany
Rainer

Very interesting topic!

I don't think of myself as a perfectionist, but sometimes I find my ambitions exceeding my patience. I seem to be better at taking on and planning projects. I get all fired up, make preparations, and gradually lose interest. I do finish things... eventually, but at my age, I'm almost certain to run out of time before I run out of projects. I think that if I relaxed my standards a bit, I would accomplish more.