In my recent book, The Full Scoop on BS, I praised the value of truth. The trouble with truth is that, like so many other aspects in life, it is often relative. This is not to devalue the truth. If anything, it is to be more truthful.
Those who write lengthy works such as theses, dissertations, or books know how easy it is to make spelling, typing and grammatical errors. Even repeated rewrites, editing, proof reading, and more editing can miss at least a few mistakes. I’ve found several in my recently published book, the worst so far being “heresay” instead of “hearsay”. It probably sounded right in my head but it should have looked wrong to my eyes. Although horrified to find errors, I was not surprised. Colleague and author Kerry Watkins warned me that no matter how many times someone else or I ran through my manuscript, errors would remain so at some point I would have to let my work out there, warts and all.
In her book, Lean In, Sheryl Sanberg wrote of a former boss telling her, “Done beats perfect”. If no books, products, inventions, or theories were revealed until they were perfect, few would see the light of day. Besides, many creations are initially flawed yet they can be improved over time or as errors come to light or after bad things happen, by their creators or someone else. In part, this is how science, law, business, and other human efforts evolve. So consistent with Kerry’s advice, it is true that done beats perfect, relatively speaking that is.
A few months ago Gwen Hovey, another colleague, said that “almost everything exists on a continuum”. Among her specialities is behavioural assessment. Not everyone presents as a future Ted Bundy or Paul Bernardo or Russell Williams. Even among psychopaths, the risk each presents is relative and exists on a continuum. We all exist on a scale between Mother Theresa on one end and Ted Bundy on the other, hopefully with most of us far closer to the first extreme than the second. Nevertheless, human behaviour and character are far from absolute because they are complex, intertwined, variable driven, and context dependent.
Even where absolutes exist, many have relative aspects. Diagnosis of a specific form of cancer is absolute yet that is closely followed by assessment of what “stage” the illness is in, often to inform physicians and patients on treatment options and a prognosis. Whatever stage a patient’s illness is in depends on currently accepted criteria, which evolve. Treatment options and prognoses are based on research and how previous patients at a similar stage fared, all depending on untold variables. Thus, the diagnosis can be absolute but the stages and prognoses are highly relative. A good friend was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer but thrives years later. His relatively poor prognosis and tough treatment options did not dissuade him from confidently, and correctly, announcing he would survive. The quality of his care, his determination, and possibly some luck showed how relatively true his negative prognosis was. Thankfully in his case, not so much.
It is true that a book needs to be shared to have value for anyone other than the author, yet even a short term paper requires many drafts. My recent book went through at least thirteen. If I had done, say, only three drafts there would have been far more errors, far less precision, and little conceptual order. So it is only relatively true that done beats perfect. On a continuum between perfect prose and unintelligible rubbish, done may beat perfect but only when the finished product is closer to perfect than to rubbish.
If the first design of the Airbus 380 was built and flown on commercial routes with no testing, it may have been a catastrophic failure with many lives lost. Fortunately, that’s not how any aircraft manufacturer builds their products. Many rounds of testing, redesigns, modifications, and simulated failures happen before any commercial jet is brought into service. The same happens with cars, medicines, and many other products. They may not be perfect, bad things occasionally happen due to smaller risks no one considered, and sometimes bad people get in the mix too. Nevertheless, most products are a lot closer to perfect than simply being done for the sake of being done (at least we hope).
In our world, absolute truths exist. Eva Blanco is either pregnant or not. John Smith either arrived in New York City yesterday or he did not. Shanice Jones is either employed by Microsoft or not. More often, the truth of a claim is far more nuanced, dependent on circumstances, and relative. Bob’s parenting skills are good, and the Prosecution’s case is strong. Yet no good parent is beyond improvement, and no criminal case is beyond being weakened or strengthened by additional investigation and/or skilled examination in court.
On a continuum between impossible and unquestionably true, most of our beliefs are somewhere between the two extremes. We hope our beliefs fall closer to unquestionably true but we serve ourselves well when we accept that such may not be the case with everything we believe. Reasonable people change where they perceive their beliefs are on that continuum as new information comes their way, or as they learn to more effectively think through their old information.
To say, even to ourselves, that everything we believe is absolutely true is to set ourselves up for disappointment or far worse. In my BS book I cautioned readers to beware of absolutes, which often indicate mistaken beliefs if not outright BS. I don’t suggest that all absolute claims are wrong because that would itself be an absolute claim, and ironic.
Some people might feel unnerved to think that something as important as the truth can be relative. Yet that realization can help us navigate the almost constant flow of information coming at us these days. Embracing the relative nature of truth can help us find more of it. Who wouldn’t like a little more truth in their lives? Incidentally, this is my fourth or fifth draft of this blog post. The first few drafts sucked, relatively.