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(Sorry, reply was too long to fit in a single reply >.<)
First of all, if we are going to talk about "aiming for perfection," we never defined even what accounts for perfection. I didn't define it neither because I just gave it out as an example of why aiming for a goal that cannot be achieved might still be worth it.
For our context, I think the best definition for "perfection" is quite simple: "to not mess up. To not make mistakes." In the context of our life's goal, we should be able to phrase perfection as the state in which we don't regret our choices and we are happy with the outcomes of them. I understand that perfection can mean many things, and be a lot more rigorous for other areas like mathematics. But, for personal fulfillment, to "live a perfect life," I'd like to believe that simply not regretting our choices and feeling good about who we are should be enough.
Now with that defined, I must take on the crust of your argument: that we cannot measure our progress in such a model.
Your argument: We cannot objectively measure progress if the goal is unachievable. My counter-argument: That's not the right perspective to use on this issue.
I think your whole argument sort of loses strength because you treat my scenario as if it should be objectively measured. And that it's quite pointless exactly because it cannot be done so. I agree with the second part, which is why I am not going to try to measure things objectively at all.
I mentioned already in a different post (if only we could craft URL's to specific posts!) my opinions on how it is impractical to try to measure our progress in situations where we don't have all the information at hand (which applies to the consequences of our actions and life in general).
The way to do things right: just look at each decision and reflect on how to do better. That's all there is to it.
Rather than looking back and trying to decide whether we make better decisions now than we did last month, I believe it's more practical to just review our decisions after the fact and decide whether we are happy with them or not. If the answer is no, then you should re-evaluate the situation and try to figure out what caused us to make the wrong choice, and make a mental note of the trigger so that we can aim to avoid it again.
With this simple mechanism, we strive to become better over time, without knowing "how much better" we are. Is it even important to know that, though? Is not like life is a series of decisions waiting to be done, and the faster you do it, the better off you can be. Is not like there's a need to compare our own journey to that of other. What point would there be in that? Different people are probably going off in very different directions: their goals (their idea of perfection) are different, their progress is different, is like comparing writing styles of people using different languages. The context is different and incomparable!
I wonder if I actually treated the subject satisfactorily, I hope I did.
SK7000
almost 12 years agoFirst of all, if we are going to talk about "aiming for perfection," we never defined even what accounts for perfection. I didn't define it neither because I just gave it out as an example of why aiming for a goal that cannot be achieved might still be worth it.
For our context, I think the best definition for "perfection" is quite simple: "to not mess up. To not make mistakes." In the context of our life's goal, we should be able to phrase perfection as the state in which we don't regret our choices and we are happy with the outcomes of them. I understand that perfection can mean many things, and be a lot more rigorous for other areas like mathematics. But, for personal fulfillment, to "live a perfect life," I'd like to believe that simply not regretting our choices and feeling good about who we are should be enough.
Now with that defined, I must take on the crust of your argument: that we cannot measure our progress in such a model.
Your argument: We cannot objectively measure progress if the goal is unachievable. My counter-argument: That's not the right perspective to use on this issue.
I mentioned already in a different post (if only we could craft URL's to specific posts!) my opinions on how it is impractical to try to measure our progress in situations where we don't have all the information at hand (which applies to the consequences of our actions and life in general).
The way to do things right: just look at each decision and reflect on how to do better. That's all there is to it.
With this simple mechanism, we strive to become better over time, without knowing "how much better" we are. Is it even important to know that, though? Is not like life is a series of decisions waiting to be done, and the faster you do it, the better off you can be. Is not like there's a need to compare our own journey to that of other. What point would there be in that? Different people are probably going off in very different directions: their goals (their idea of perfection) are different, their progress is different, is like comparing writing styles of people using different languages. The context is different and incomparable!
I wonder if I actually treated the subject satisfactorily, I hope I did.