Every detail is perfect

Make every detail perfect, and limit the number of details

Make every detail perfect, and limit the number of details to perfect.
- Jack Dorsey

I heard that once, and it started banging around my head, refusing to leave.

When you build stuff for people, they always have requests. They’ll say, “Hey, can you add this feature?” And you think, “Sure, why not? That means they’re using it; they care!” Right?

Except sometimes you don’t want to do it.

Maybe it’s just not in line with your vision, or maybe it feels like it’ll weigh the whole thing down. Then you wonder: am I crazy? Isn’t the mantra “the customer is always right”?

So, if I say no, am I stubborn, or am I protecting the product from becoming a junk drawer of half-baked ideas?

And I keep coming back to that quote, plus something from 37signals: they solve for themselves first. If they like it, if they’d use it, if it feels right, then maybe other people will like it, too.

And you see so many bloated tools out there—dozens of features, customizations, settings upon settings—and it’s just gross. It’s like they’re stuffing in everything anybody ever asked for. Because they’re scared to say no? Because they think more is automatically better?

Meanwhile, people complain: “We only use 10% of this. The rest is a pain.” So it’s not really “better.”

I think that’s the trick: you make fewer things but make them perfect (or as close to perfect as we humans get). And sometimes someone complains, “Where’s this or that feature?” But if it doesn’t fit your product, if you can’t make it good if it’s just a quick patch job — why ship it? Why pile it on?

I don’t want to do half-assed stuff anymore. It’s not worth the headache for users or me.

It feels like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's line sums it up: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Suppose I can pull that off—keeping things slim, purposeful, not bowing to every request—maybe I’ll love what I build.

And if I love it, maybe other people will, too.

That’s what I’m betting on, anyway.