Informed, Imperfect Action
Beats no action, every single time.
Perfectionism is destroying our society. In this essay, I will…
No, for real. I could not be more serious, y’all.
Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison want to be immortal. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have given up entirely on this planet, and think we should just start over elsewhere. Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg and everyone else in Silicon Valley are convinced that they can build a brain better than the one they’ve all got between their ears. Bill Gates has a literal supervillain lair. Am I missing anyone?
The root of all of that is a perverse desire for perfection.
It’s not to change the world.
It’s to SAVE it. To remake it in THEIR image.
I want to be very clear. It’s not about the money. The money is obviously how they go about doing what they’re doing, but the problem isn’t the money, or how they’re spending it.
It’s that they stopped listening to anyone else.
Like that time Elon said he’d end world hunger, was presented with a plan that would only cost $6.6 billion, and then donated a bunch of money to his own foundation instead. Which…did not end world hunger.
It’s not enough to live one good life. They want to live forever.
It’s not enough to build something for the future. These folks have stopped building for anyone but themselves.
And I cannot say this loudly enough. It’s not about innovation. If it was, they wouldn’t be stealing from artists.
Perfectionism harms activist work, too.
You can see it in identity politics. The way that the left in particular has highly inflexible thresholds for who can do the work, and whether they are doing it correctly. The time spent declaring intention, instead of action.
One of the things that still makes me most angry about Project 2025 is that we had a fairly long time horizon on what it was, and what implementation would look like. Instead of having any kind of plan to combat it if Vice President Harris lost, the plan was…win at all costs, I guess.
That worked well. 🤷🏽♀️
Look, I still believe in this work. I BELIEVE in committees. That a small group of people taking action will change the world.
But we seem to be struggling with action lately.
And I get it. Everything feels so much harder right now. Because it IS. You’ve been forcefed addiction under the guise of connection.
Your entire world has been optimized.
That shit is fucking exhausting.
And the way to take it back isn’t to do more. Have more. Be more. The way we take our lives back is to do less. MUCH LESS.
It’s why everything I build these days is committed to informed, imperfect action.
So, what does that mean in practice??? I’ve got three recommendations.
1️⃣ The first thing I suggest you look at is how to slow down the day.
We do that by subtracting.
What are you doing that you can do less of? What are you doing that someone else can do? What are you doing that you can let go of entirely?
Rest is resistance.
Less is resistance, too.
2️⃣ We can also make substitutions.
I started reading physical books again recently. I am not ashamed to tell you that I’ve gotten back almost FOUR HOURS A DAY that I was spending on my phones. It wasn’t all social media—I’m gaming less, and working less, too. All of that feels like a win to me.
We all certainly do NOT have the same 24 hours a day as Beyoncé, because we don’t have her team.
But swapping out things we love for things we do out of habit or obligation?
You’ll never be sorry.
3️⃣ We do it in community.
Because I’m never going to get it right.
I will be wrong. I will make mistakes. That’s the glory of humanity.
The work is in knowing what you do not know, finding people who do, asking good questions, and THEN doing something.
Building these relationships is not something we can do retroactively.
Which is why Cheryl Woodhouse and I built the Sewing Circle.
We are committed to informed, imperfect action.
We believe that small groups of people will change the world, especially if they’ve been given the opportunity to learn, and ask questions, in a space that is committed to growth.
Founding membership is open for ONE MORE WEEK.