Plane Food

It’s been a while. It’s not that I’ve had nothing to say, but rather too much. And I don’t know where to start.

Since my first post in August I’ve been doing “stuff”. Interesting stuff, stuff I can’t wait to understand more of so that I can do my job properly.

I’m working for a mobile adtech start-up based in Boston. Datami is in an exciting place. Last week we got a 10m investment from Orange Digital Ventures in France, we’re at Mobile World Congress next week, and we’re working on projects that will change how brands advertise on mobile. I’m not going to talk about that right now.

What I do want to talk about is getting sh*t done. I’ve been told I’m a perfectionist by numerous managers, and that has its pros and cons.

Done is better than perfect.

Perfection is what we all aim to achieve, right? But getting things done means we can get feedback, iterate and move on. Waiting to get things perfect — your perfect — is not perfect. That UI screen mock you’ve been zooming in and out to get aligned pixel perfect will inevitably need someone else’s input and change. Why spend time with perfection when done will get you where you need to be, leaner, and without the hurt when your design is changed one pixel to the left too far for your OCD to handle. Let me caveat this; I’m talking solely about when you need feedback or input from another party. When you’re about to hit go on that global email campaign, you get that perfect.

So why does this matter. Well it doesn’t really, I’m sure you already knew this. Though it’s probably a good reminder that by trying to get things perfect, it hinders your work and getting onto that next project.

Don’t be a Judgey, McJudge.

The inspiration to write this came as I was talking to a colleague about the many, many ideas in my head and what’s holding me back to doing them: perfection. I think I need to sit down with my well-collected thoughts and craft together a post one hand-picked word at a time. We were talking about plane food and explaining the realization of why I like it so much (don’t judge me, I can feel you silently judging me).

I’ve been traveling a lot lately and “getting sh*t done”, to me, is a reminder that some things can’t wait. This is a mere introduction to saying that I’m changing how I work and I’ll be writing more. I may even tell you why I like plane food so much.

So, until my next plane ride let me leave you this: Would you earn your badge?