RE: The Value of Giving Up: The Best we can Do is... Our Best
I like your point. I am a more of an advocate of the “80% solution now vs 100% solution tomorrow” approach.
I think the venue and format dictates a lot. If you are publishing something in a journal or a periodical, then it makes sense to give it everything you have and do your very best. But on a platform like this it just seems like that is a recipe for burnout and discouragement.
Even practically speaking, my gut feeling is that you are more likely to build engagement and pick up followers by posting a few shorter posts rather than one longer, but higher quality one. The odds of people seeing one of your posts is higher the more you have out there. Of course, you need to balance quality to make sure you’re not putting out a bunch of garbage, but like you said, oftentimes your 2nd or 3rd best is good enough.
Some relatively wise person once made the statement to me that "perfectionism is the enemy of accomplishment."
At the time, I seem to remember it was mostly designed to shake me out of my stupor... but in retrospect, it makes a good bit of sense. What good is a perfect article, a perfect project... if it never actually gets done and sees the light of day?
My efforts here are mostly designed to encourage engagement and interaction... not to win literary awards. But I still want to feel reasonably good about "putting my name" on what I publish.