Making and the Meaning of "Good"
I've been making things for a while now. If we count language, I've been saying words for a couple of decades at least. If we don't, I've been writing software since I was around 9 years old. I used to make tiny little games in Game Maker, mostly little variations on the tutorials. This was back before it became "game making software" with tiers and subscriptions and all that stuff I've come to hate about modern software. I never pursued games, but I did pursue software. If we don't count that, I've been writing music since I was in high school. FL Studio was my jam back in the day, though I've since moved onto Reaper as I stopped making more beat-heavy things and started making more recorded music. If we don't count that, I've been woodworking for a few years now. I've been 3D printing for a while. I've had an interested in electronics and built a few circuits. All this to say, I've been making things for a while now.
When you make things, a principal thought in your mind is about what "good" is. You learn very early to be happy without "perfect," or at least you learn that it's simply not possible. This causes a shift in mindset. Sometimes, you obsess about getting as close as possible to it. It can be frustrating. Sometimes, you learn to favor aesthetics and surface-level optics, especially when you're making something for somebody else. Sometimes, you learn to adapt your processes to get better results. But still, how do you know if something is good?
"Good enough" is definitely a graceful proxy for "good." It's easy to define "good enough" when you're making something for somebody else, but it's a little bit trickier to do that when you're making something only for yourself. As long as it aligns with your values, as long as it works for you and what you intended for it to do, that's probably good enough. That's a good place to end whatever project you were working on. But still... Is it good?
A lot of times we know what "great" looks like, because we're surrounded by it in every field. But not every project can be about "great." "Great" takes time, energy, sometimes even money. "Great" also takes a great deal of luck. You can aim for it, just like you would aim for "perfect," but just like "perfect" you'll learn eventually that it's just not possible. At least, not all the time.
So what I would say is that when you're just starting out, you almost always have no choice but to make "bad." Bad songs, bad woodworking projects, bad articles, bad 3D prints, bad software, bad photos, bad videos, bad thoughts, even. But you should lean into it, even as you get better. Because if you know it's bad, maybe you could start to understand why. And if you understand why it's bad, you can understand what to avoid. You can only do this by making the "bad," finishing the "bad," and looking back on it. Slowly, through understanding the bad, we can begin to trace a line around good. We'll never pinpoint it, sure. But we can get a little closer everyday by making, and defining "bad." And maybe that's enough.