Get it done first; make it perfect afterward.

Anyone who writes knows that good articles are made through revision. Getting the words down is half the battle: you already have a framework and only need to work on the details.

Once the framework is complete, much of the psychological burden lifts, allowing you to approach those detailed revisions more calmly.

If you set out to produce a masterpiece from the start, you will probably end up constipated: you want to squeeze out something huge, only to discover that you cannot even manage something small.

Besides, what you subjectively consider “perfect” may not turn out all that perfect. It may not even be much better than something you put together casually.

Take my own writing experience. I used to have many “perfect” pieces, such as The Technology of the Flesh-and-Blood Assembly Line, One Day, Zero Yuan, What Is Shanxi?, and Why a Thesis? Why Standards? Each took weeks or even months and an enormous amount of effort. Yet nobody read them. I published the first three elsewhere, and may no longer even hold their copyrights.

Recently, however, I have been writing almost one article a day. By my old standards of “perfection,” these articles are certainly rushed, insufficiently rigorous, and nowhere near perfect. This one, too, is really just a lightweight piece.

But what does that matter? First, I finished them and published them, and they have become part of my body of work. Second, in these past few days I have also written many articles that satisfy me, and they have indeed benefited many readers.

In reality, most work involves muddling through. First, cobble together a version 1.0. Make the thing exist and meet its most essential need. Then you have time to make targeted improvements according to their importance and urgency, patching it up until it looks less cobbled together and becomes version 2.0, or even 3.0.

Even a brilliant version 1.0 cannot match an ordinary version 2.0 or 3.0.

Produce results quickly, get feedback quickly, and iterate quickly. You will end up with more work to your name, and more of it will be relatively polished.

So getting it done matters most. Seek completion first, then perfection.