WONTFIX

It's always exciting to figure out a new way of doing things; your old way had all these flaws and downsides that you really hated, but this new way is much better! At first, it seems amazing and flawless, but slowly the cracks appear and you eventually realise that your new way, like the old way, has flaws and downsides as well. And then the hunt begins again for the perfect system so that you can finally be safe in the knowledge you're doing everything right.

In many cases, though perhaps not all cases, there is no perfect system. Even if one exists, it might be too difficult or costly to achieve, you might not know what it is, or it might take some time to get there. So while there's nothing wrong with striving for perfection, it would definitely be a mistake to consider a lack of perfection a failure. Realistically, if you're unhappy with having flaws, you're just going to be unhappy.

But, either explicitly or implicitly, it seems fairly common to talk about a system with flaws as unacceptable, as if something must be done. What shall we do about the risk of dying in an airline crash, terrorist attack, or carcinogenic bacon? Well, probably nothing. The truth is there is some chance you will die from those things, and the effort to avoid those risks is not really worth it. Assuming you continue to fly, eat bacon or go out in public, your system has flaws – fatal flaws – that you are just going to have to accept.

It can be hard sometimes, when someone points out a flaw, or you notice one yourself, to say "yes, that is a flaw I have". But that's exactly what you have to be able to do if you want to make reasonable tradeoffs. You only have a certain amount of time and energy per day, and the more you put into your relationships the less you have for your work and vice versa. You can pursue those in any proportion you like, but you can't use more than you have. Maybe you resolve to focus on doing what you enjoy and then someone else points out that they have much more money than you. That's true, and you have to be able to own it.

If you can't embrace the downsides, you risk putting yourself in a position where you try to optimise for everything at once, and constantly change back and forward between systems depending on whatever downside you most want to avoid at any given moment. Of course, the outcome of constantly changing your system is no system at all. Acting with no intention is bad, but the worse thing is that unless you can accept the negative consequences, you're never going to be happy with your decisions.