{"id":12487,"date":"2007-09-18T20:46:12","date_gmt":"2007-09-18T20:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/jnackdev\/2007\/09\/musing-on-mediocrity.html"},"modified":"2007-09-18T20:46:12","modified_gmt":"2007-09-18T20:46:12","slug":"musing_on_mediocrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/18\/musing_on_mediocrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Musing on mediocrity"},"content":{"rendered":"

I often wonder why, in the midst of working with a brilliant team on a beloved<\/a> & respected product in a company that’s doing better than ever<\/a>, I’m kind of a miserable bastard.  I get this insane privilege, and yet no matter how full the glass, I see only the flaws, only the things that could and should and must<\/em> be made better.<\/p>\n

I found a little solace in Paul Arden’s It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be<\/em><\/a>.  Maybe, if you’re like me, you will, too:<\/p>\n

\n

Why do we strive for excellence when mediocrity is required?<\/p>\n

There is little demand in the commercial world for excellence.  There is much, much bigger demand for mediocrity.<\/p>\n

The truth is, I’m glad it’s this way.<\/p>\n

Imagine a world where all clients were wonderful, where we could produce whatever we felt like with no restrictions, with everybody having freedom to produce all their fantasies unfettered by tedious clients.<\/p>\n

What would we do?<\/p>\n

We would react against it, saying, “Isn’t this boring.  How can we be dull?  Let’s do it badly<\/a>, let’s make it ugly, and let’s make it really cheaply.”<\/p>\n

That’s the nature of the creative person.  All creative people need something to rebel against.  It’s what gives their lives excitement, and it’s creative people who make the clients’ lives exciting. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Or, as George Bernard Shaw succinctly put it: <\/p>\n

\n

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. All progress, therefore, depends upon the unreasonable man<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nKeep your head up,
\nJ.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I often wonder why, in the midst of working with a brilliant team on a beloved & respected product in a company that’s doing better than ever, I’m kind of a miserable bastard.  I get this insane privilege, and yet no matter how full the glass, I see only the flaws, only the things that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnack.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}