One more fix. Then I’ll show someone.
Imagine you’re about to show someone a thing you’ve made. Then you notice something you could improve. Fair enough, you fix it. While you’re there, you find something else. A week later, the thing is better, but nobody has seen it.
It can be hard to tell where caring about the work turns into putting off the moment someone responds to it.
Gleb, who builds Capture, saved a thought about exactly this. He was spending his time building while putting off sharing the product. He wanted it to look perfect and work perfectly. The improvements were easy to keep making; showing it to people kept waiting.
Why Zeland comes into this
Vadim Zeland wrote Reality Transurfing, a series of books about how we approach the things we want. The books mix practical observations with spiritual ideas about how reality works. Here, we’re interested in one observation: wanting something to turn out perfectly can become a struggle that feeds itself.
In one passage, he describes someone who keeps trying to correct the gap between reality and perfection. The harder they push, the more caught up in the struggle they become. He makes room for doing your best. The trouble, in his account, is how much importance you attach to getting everything exactly right.
Applied to making something, that raises an uncomfortable question: what are you asking this one release, demonstration, or post to prove?
If it has to prove you’re talented and that you haven’t wasted your time, showing it can feel like a lot more than showing a product. That’s our application of his idea, not something Zeland wrote about software.
Buying a newspaper shouldn’t require a life breakthrough
Zeland uses a surprisingly ordinary example: deciding to buy a newspaper. You want one, so you go and get it. If you can’t, it isn’t the end of the world.
That example puts some scale back into the conversation. A product matters more to its maker than a newspaper does, but does every small step need to carry the weight of the whole ambition?
You can care about whether a demonstration works without asking it to settle your future. You can want the finished product to succeed while giving your attention to the part you can actually work on today. Zeland still leaves room for picturing the destination; his advice about the process is to focus on the stage you’re at.
What could you do with that?
Take something you keep preparing to share and finish these two sentences:
Before someone can try this, I need to fix…
If someone tried it now, I’m worried they would…
The answers might overlap. A broken interaction or exposed private information really does need fixing. But you might also find that you’re polishing something because you don’t yet know how people will react. Another afternoon of polishing may not answer that question.
Our suggested next step is small: show one working part to one person, explain what isn’t finished, and ask about the thing you need to understand. Then write down what actually happened, even if it was awkward or didn’t tell you much.
This is where Capture fits for us. Gleb’s saved thought didn’t announce that he had solved perfectionism. It caught him noticing the delay while he was still in it. Having that thought written down gives him something specific to return to: what needs fixing, and what am I waiting to find out?
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Want to think it through with an agent? Give it this article and the thing you’re working on. Ask: “Help me separate what genuinely needs fixing from what I’m worried people will think. What’s one small, responsible way to find out?” Treat its answer as a suggestion, not permission to publish or act.
Reading notes: Based on supplied excerpts from Vadim Zeland’s Reality Transurfing. Steps I–V: “Perfection,” “The Purification of Intention,” and “Transfer Chains.” The product example and exercise are Capture’s application, not Zeland’s advice or endorsement. His metaphysical explanations are not presented here as established science. Book information.