There was once a ceramics teacher called Brian. One month, Brian decided to split his class into two groups. Over 30 days, Group A would be graded on the quantity of work they produced, and Group B would be graded on the quality of work they produced. Group A had to submit 50 pounds worth of pots to be graded an “A”, 40 pounds for a “B” and so on, whereas Group B only had to work on a single pot and submit it by the end of the 30 days.

At the end of the month, Brian judged the quality of the pots. Without exception, every one of the top 10 pots came from Group A, those that made one pot per day. None came from the group that focused on perfecting their single pot.

Source: Art & Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. Haven’t read it personally but have heard it’s worthwhile.

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It seems obvious that to get good at something, you’ll likely make some mistakes along the way. A baby doesn’t start walking without (hilariously) falling over multiple times. A photographer doesn’t learn their craft without sifting through many sub-par photos. And a potter doesn’t become world-class without practicing and improving their pottery craftsmanship technique.

Despite this, trying and failing is a difficult practice. Whether it’s the uncomfortable thought of knowing nothing or failing to meet others’ expectations, the inner critic is always there to put on the brakes before a spectacular humiliation, despite these experiences being exactly those in which one gets better. It’s a sad paradox – the pursuit for perfection prevents a beginner from improving at all.

Perhaps the cure to this perfection paralysis is a change in attitude. The liberating thought that, “Look, my first 50 steps/photos/pots are going to suck, but that’s okay. I know I’ll get better over time, but I can’t get better if I don’t start somewhere.”

Of course, this idea doesn’t apply towards all domains. There are situations where quality matters over quantity, such as focus during studying or correct form during exercise. Neglecting quality in pursuit of quantity can be devastating in these circumstances. But sometimes, I wonder what would happen if one day, everyone stared into the eyes of their inner critic and said, “Enough. I don’t care what you think anymore – I’m just gonna do something I want to do and suck at it, and do it again, and again, and again, until I get good at it, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Honestly, I think that would be pretty cool.