Good Enough

So I started the website earlier this month. I'm working on making it better, and trying to figure out what in the world I talk about in various blog posts. I think I've settled on aiming for two posts a month, one on the worldbuilding around Arx Nubibus (and other stories once I'm publishing them) and one post focused on a specific character. For October I'll probably talk about what I want to talk about, but I might set up votes for future topics on Twitter or Patreon. As of yet I'm undecided.

And of course I'm anxious about a lot of things. The first day I published Arx back in May, I was obsessively looking at it and giving myself a stomachache at how many people were seeing it. I want people to see it of course, but the thought that 100 people might have already looked at it made me have a bit of a panic attack. Now I'm desensitized to that stuff. According to World Anvil, each new chapter gets about 100 views each week (a little less, but I'm rounding).

Publishing Miracles of Arx Nubibus every week has been good for me as a writer, though. Even if I've freaked out along the way, it's happening. What might normally happen is I get bogged down in trying to make everything perfect and it never gets finished. Or I get stuck and give up. A weekly publishing schedule takes both options away from me.

Even if the chapter happens Sunday night. Even if I'm worried it's not good enough. It goes up. And then it turns out that it was good enough.

There's this weird idea in our society that 'good enough' is the enemy of excellence or something. I've probably heard that exact quote somewhere.

But that all depends on what your version of good enough is. If we work on a percentage scale like they graded my high school assignments on, there is a marked difference between 50% or 60% being 'good enough' and 90% being 'good enough'. And different people have different capabilities. I tutored a girl who was excited for a 50% on her math test.

As an adult, I get to choose what tasks I tackle, but in high school I knew people who struggled with one or multiple subjects. And in that case, your 'good enough' is similar to 'your best'.

I've been a perfectionist for a long time. Stressing over all the perceived things that aren't 'good enough' for my perfectionist brain to handle. I forgot a comma here. I could have done x better. Those thoughts really dragged me down for a while, and I'm happy to report that I am better now. Those tendencies still exist, but I'm able to wave my hands and say 'good enough' after a certain point. Can I be better? Probably. Perfection is an asymptote.

Most people probably don't know what an asymptote is, whether it's because they didn't learn it or they've forgotten because most people don't need that level of math in their daily lives. I remember the asymptote because it's like perfection.

In linear graphs, an asymptote is a line that the graph will never cross. It will get closer and closer ad infinitum, but the line of the graph will never cross it. If you look up a tan graph, you will see a dotted like that the actual curved graph line will never touch. It will get closer and closer, so close you can't tell the difference, but it will never reach that asymptote. A similar example would be graphing y = 1/x. This one creates two asymptotes because neither y nor x can ever be 0 for complicated math reasons.

Perfection is the same as an asymptote. If we call one axis the effort we've put in and the other one the 'closeness to perfect', we will find an asymptote right at that perfect mark.

No matter how much effort or time we put in, we will never reach that asymptote. And there comes a point where the effort put in is no longer worth the additional points we get. That is what I call the 'good enough' mark. When you deem that the effort you put in is no longer worth the points you'll get for that effort.

And deciding that something is good enough and can be finished is a nice feeling. I get a small sense of accomplishment with each chapter I finish, and with each side story I do. Being able to finish a part of something or a project and put it away is important to move on with life.

For all I know that's common knowledge. But it's a lesson I had to learn, so I'm passing it on. For any stressed-out perfectionists out there, remember that 'good enough' is exactly what it says on the tin - good enough. Maybe not perfect, but it's good.