Is perfection an enemy?

[Mauvish1]

My name is Mauvish1 and I'm a pedant. (Phew, I got that out fairly painlessly!). Seriously, I'm surprised I have any teeth left, as they are put on edge so often by basic errors in written English. Last week I seriously considered marching into the head teacher's office in my DGD's primary school to complain about a misplaced apostrophe on a sign in the school library!

But I wonder if we're overstressing the importance of perfection?

I did a degree in a MFL fairly late in life, and my aim was to be able to have a sensible conversation with a stranger in said language. Obviously grammar is important, but my mission statement (in the relevant language!) was, "The most important thing is to be understood" - and that's achievable without perfection. In fact I'd argue that the perfection demanded by the university for my degree hindered my progress, as I'd get so caught up in how to say something correctly that the moment would pass without my saying anything. Conversation cannot flow like this!

Eats, shoots and leaves. I know. Grammar and spelling is important, as any fule no. But does an overemphasis on grammar and spelling put people off trying to join in, to make their mark, to be understood? And does that then hinder the person making improvements (if they want to)? I didn't master chatting in my target language until I'd shed the university requirements for everything to be correct, and just got on with talking to native speakers in various settings abroad. I'm sure I made dozens of errors in every conversation but my confidence grew and yes, I was understood.

I'm just throwing this in here for discussion (though I won't be able to join in any discussion for another 24 hours as bed is calling!)

Well, they do say it's the enemy of good, and of progress, and that it's a flaw.

I love you for the use of the phrase, "as any fule kno". Cheers, Molesworth.

Yes, great to hear it. And even better, an opportunity for further pedantry. It's 'as any fule kno' (not 'no'). It is misspelled, not homophonic. And this following the phrase 'Grammar and spelling is important' is pleasantly ironic.

I used to be more pedantic until I had to teach my kids to write, at which point I became a huge advocate of 'conveying your meaning is more important than being perfect'.

Watching my son get frustrated about minor errors in a birthday card for his gran made me so sad - it was supposed to be a genuine expression of love, and instead he was stressed about how to remedy a missing letter without it looking 'wrong' and the whole thing was a frustrating misfire in terms of the goal of the exercise.

So my current position is that if it's your job to communicate or teach people who need clarity and will struggle to parse minor errors, then you should strive for perfection. But in most other cases, stifling your genuine thoughts or ideas for fear that they aren't going to come out fully formed and perfect does everyone a disservice!

@Mauvish1 I hope you slept well. I'm sure you're right. Different standards apply to different circumstances. Pedants' corner posts require the highest standard. Muphry's Law applies - no matter how hard one tries, a mistake will creep in only to be corrected by others. What you say about being understood is important in all circumstances. Throwaway conversation can be understood without perfection. However, a school library sign needs to be understood and correct. Otherwise it conveys an additional impression of illiteracy, which is not what you want understood. Likewise with formal or academic speech or writing. Mistakes undermine credibility. There are limits even in informal interaction, though. Missing punctuation, abbreviations or loose grammar may not detract from a social media or conversational message. But making the 'should of' error immediately conveys ignorance. The speaker has used a word that does not mean what they think it means, and that can never be right.

Is Muphry’s Law a deliferate mistale? 😁

'The most important thing is to be understood.' ?

In a foreign country I pointed to a word in a dictionary. A woman pointed towards the sea.
Is that all we need?