I’ve written a few times about “Hello World,” that common first command widely used when learning a new programming language. Recently, though, I set up a blog for my partner M. Lopes da Silva, and he decided to make his own “Hello World” first post. Except it’s not “Hello World,” it’s “Wello Horld,” and the post discusses topics of accepting imperfection and just starting where you’re at.
This is just to say that yes, “Wello Horld” is very funny–or at least I think it is. Try saying it! It rolls off the tongue in a nice way.
But this is also just to say that sometimes, you learn from doing things the wrong way. At the very least, you learn more than doing nothing at all. Sometimes “Wello Horld” is just as good as “Hello World” and it’s definitely better than “”.
On a personal note, I’ve had a few interactions with people recently where I found that their pursuit of perfection really fouled things up between us. And sure–it’s an easy trap to fall into. It’s something I struggled with tremendously throughout my life, that whole neurodivergent RSD thing. There were so many applications unfinished, auditions signed up for but never attended, opportunities turned down because I was afraid I wouldn’t measure up. I would quit before I even started.
At some point, thought, I started telling myself “perfectionism is poison.” I keep telling myself that daily. I think it was something about nearing the middle of my life, looking back on all that fear, that put an even bigger fear in me. Now I fear doing nothing.
So I’m submitting a lot of applications these days, collecting all the rejections. It hurts to be less-than-perfect but that’s okay because pain is better than nothing, and “perfect” is a made-up ideal that nobody ever really achieves.
Sometimes, in a bizarre offshoot of the wheat and chessboard problem*, for a single rejection I’ll submit two more applications elsewhere. Maybe I’m channeling the hurt of rejection into spite, but please somebody stop me before I reach 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 applications! /j
Okay, before you get hypercritical, yes I will admit that it’s not really a full wheat-and-chessboard problem because I don’t always submit two for every one rejection, and I don’t always get rejected. That’s the joke!
And to return to the topic I started with: sometimes it’s better to jump in and just make something than to wiffle-waffle over whether it’s the right thing. We learn from mistakes as much as we learn from successes, if not more. So, wello horld! I’m ready for you.
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