On getting things done well (enough)

Perfection is the enemy of the good. Mediocrity is the enemy of all that is good.

Desensitisation

Everything loses its emotional impact with repeated exposure. The amazingly beautiful film that draws you to tears becomes boring on the fifth watching. The adrenaline surge of the rollercoaster wanes as you loop around again and again. Pre-match nerves evaporate the more competitions you enter. But there is one thing, after all these years, that still fills me with that mixture of fear and exhilaration - performing a BIOS update. The knowledge that you're just one false keystroke, one trip-over-the-power-cord or one power surge away from turning your sleek, amazingly fast computer into an expensive-and-not-very-practical paperweight is a potent elixir. I'm not sure I like it, but I find it absolutely amazing that it still holds such a power over me. No doubt, if I was tech support for a company and I had to run dozens of them at a time it'd lose its effect, but for now at least, it is the one activity that I can think of which each times can tug at my nerves as intensely as it did the first few times.