Getting Real (Chapter 4)

Overall, I agree with the viewpoints of Chapter 4; talking about simple but strong ideas. I like the quote “If you try to please everyone, you won’t please anyone” by 37Signals; it is weird but I guess its talking about reality. Do not waste your time and effort just for you to be good to everyone’s eyes because reality does not permit you to do so. You are dreaming if you think you can actually befriend your customers or other people. As for what I learned in this chapter aside from what I mentioned above, it is not to be paranoid; like what 37Signals said, do not think of the future problems yet when building a system or software. Although it is good to prepare to yourself for what lies ahead, somehow it is impractical because all you have are assumptions of what to happen in the future.

Similarly, do not easily jump into conclusions as what people says. In creating systems or software, for now, think of the present things you can do. It means only do things that is needed for the mean time and later are the future needs. And the last thing that sticks to mind while I was reading Chapter 4 is that being a perfectionist at the beginning is bad; I guess even in reality whether it is beginning or ending, being a perfectionist all the way is just bad. Perfectionist means focusing on the details first instead of the big picture. I can relate to this, I am a perfectionist in one way or another; I get easily bugged or frustrated when small things are not in their proper places or is not working the way it is supposed to be. With that, now I know what to concentrate on first when working a system or software and that is not on the details; pretty much I learned my lesson and try not to be a perfectionist.