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Figuring it out, again and again

Walking the tightrope of ideals and reality

Sari Azout

Sep 14

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One thing I’ve come to appreciate is that having a vision is not the same as executing it. There is no shortage of ambitious ideas. Time and time again, it is when the rubber of ambition meets the road of practicality that things get tough.

I love the way Chris Best describes the tension of blending pragmatism and idealism:

Do we have principles we hold dear, and a vision for the future we want to create? Or are we fumbling along, tinkering, finding what works, and forever allowing contact with reality to rearrange our mental furniture, make a mess on our conceptual floor, and occasionally punch so many holes in the walls that need to strip our whole idea-house down to the studs before we can renovate?

To me the only answer that can possibly be satisfying is: both.

If you have ideals but you don't take responsibility for making a change in the world, you are working on your self-image, not a product for other people. If all you have is pragmatism, then you have speed but not a direction and the purpose of your work will get set by default to, at best, the same conventional things that everyone else is chasing.

Putting the idealism and pragmatism together is forever uncomfortable. Frequently the direction set by ideals means not taking the clearest practical path. More subtly, often as you go to put principles into practice, you realize that the ideal is not quite as simple as you thought when you started.