”...If perfection is impossible that is no excuse for not trying. Hold yourself to the highest standard you can imagine, and look for one still higher. Do not be content with the answer that is almost right; seek one that is exactly right.”
Sounds like destructive advice for a lot of people. I could add a personal disclaimer or adjust the tone away from “never feel satisfied” towards “don’t get complacent” though that’s a beyond what I feel a summarizer ought to do.
Similarly, the ‘argument’ virtue sounds like bad advice to take literally, unless tempered with a ‘shut up and be socially aware’ virtue.
I’d appreciate any perspective on this or what I should do.
Most advice is contraindicated for some people, so if it’s not a valid Law, it should only be called to attention, not all else equal given weight or influence beyond what calling something to attention normally merits. Even for Laws, there is no currently legible Law saying that people must or should follow them, that depends on the inscrutable values of Civilization. It’s not a given that people should optimize themselves for being agents. So advice for being an effective agent might be different from advice for being healthy or valuable, or understanding topos theory, or building 5 meters high houses of cards.
For perfectionism, I think never being satisfied with where you’re at now doesn’t mean you can’t take pride in how far you’ve come?
“Don’t feel complacent” feels different from “striving for perfection” to me. The former feels more like making sure your standards don’t drop too much (maintaining a good lower bound), whereas the latter feels more like pushing the upper limit. When I think about complacency, I think about being careful and making sure that I am not e.g. taking the easy way out because of laziness. When I think about perfectionism (in the 12 virtues sense), I think about imagining ways things can be better and finding ways to get closer to that ideal.
I don’t really understand the ‘argument’ virtue so no comment for that.
I’m in the process of summarizing The Twelve Virtues of Rationality and don’t feel good about writing the portion on perfectionism
”...If perfection is impossible that is no excuse for not trying. Hold yourself to the highest standard you can imagine, and look for one still higher. Do not be content with the answer that is almost right; seek one that is exactly right.”
Sounds like destructive advice for a lot of people. I could add a personal disclaimer or adjust the tone away from “never feel satisfied” towards “don’t get complacent” though that’s a beyond what I feel a summarizer ought to do.
Similarly, the ‘argument’ virtue sounds like bad advice to take literally, unless tempered with a ‘shut up and be socially aware’ virtue.
I’d appreciate any perspective on this or what I should do.
Most advice is contraindicated for some people, so if it’s not a valid Law, it should only be called to attention, not all else equal given weight or influence beyond what calling something to attention normally merits. Even for Laws, there is no currently legible Law saying that people must or should follow them, that depends on the inscrutable values of Civilization. It’s not a given that people should optimize themselves for being agents. So advice for being an effective agent might be different from advice for being healthy or valuable, or understanding topos theory, or building 5 meters high houses of cards.
For perfectionism, I think never being satisfied with where you’re at now doesn’t mean you can’t take pride in how far you’ve come?
“Don’t feel complacent” feels different from “striving for perfection” to me. The former feels more like making sure your standards don’t drop too much (maintaining a good lower bound), whereas the latter feels more like pushing the upper limit. When I think about complacency, I think about being careful and making sure that I am not e.g. taking the easy way out because of laziness. When I think about perfectionism (in the 12 virtues sense), I think about imagining ways things can be better and finding ways to get closer to that ideal.
I don’t really understand the ‘argument’ virtue so no comment for that.
Thank you, I hadn’t noticed the difference but I agree that complacency is not the message.
I think I can word things the way you are and spread a positive message.
Thanks a lot, you’ve un-stumped me.