Imperfect Design

Design always moves toward perfection through revision, and toward imperfection through revision as well.

Whenever I have an idea, it is only after I implement it that I realize how many related problems still need attention. Take this site's shader covers, for example. At first I was only thinking about the effect and the architecture. Once I actually built them, I found I still had to deal with loading, optimization, color adaptation, and more. Each time I solved one problem, it seemed to bring out several more—endless, generation after generation—and I grew tired in all that patching.

Imperfect design is the norm; perfect design is the exception. Or perhaps I simply have not yet learned to think things through completely. But I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing. Someone once said that if you can no longer empathize with your past self, it means you have grown. I used to apply that line when criticizing my older work. Now I apply it to ideas I had only hours—or even minutes—ago. I suppose that is not such a bad thing either.

Ideals are full; reality is gaunt. And it is in that gauntness that I am becoming a more realistic version of myself.