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Food for Thought Exercises

Food for Thought Exercises

Date: Jun 04 2012

Topic: Writing

Author: englishteacher24/7

Lesson

This is lesson is written to engage your mind and provide an opportunity to express your thoughts in English.  Please offer your comments about the topic and I will offer mine in.

Scroll down to see previous topics and the responses.

Comments

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englishteacher24/7

United States

LaPrinces, let’s agree that perfectionism in the context of this discussion is the practical pursuit of perfection. For example, in designing parts there is a dimension tolerance that a part must fall within.


Now to be perfect, the part would have to be the exact design dimension or the part is scrapped. Therefore, there is a diminishing return between the design tolerance and the exact target dimension.


The question is: Is it worth the time and expense to manufacture the part perfectly or is close good enough?


I appreciate your comments.

10:35 PM Oct 12 2015 |

La Princesse de la vie

Egypt

“Is perfectionism worth the investment of time?”


Well, I think such thing as perfectionism doesn’t exist, however working towards it is always worthy because we get to improve ourselves and upgrade. So, yeah, working towards perfectionism is worth the investment of time.


For the cake instance, I will choose option no. 2 as long as the cake can be taken up, although there’s a small mistake that can be ignored. However if the amount of salt forgotten is gonna make out something of my cake that can’t be handled, I’ll go for option no. 1.



Thank you Mr. Alston for this forum. I can see it’s created to be enhancing our writing skills and feeding our minds. I’m looking forward to more of this.


12:09 PM Oct 12 2015 |

englishteacher24/7

United States

NavidArash, thanks for reviving this “Food for Thought” forum and I agree with you concerning your thought of not waiting to do something perfectly before doing something. Using English is a perfect example (no pun intended.) With your mindset concerning using English, I predict in the future your English level may be significantly higher.


For those who are just joining this forum, the question was: “Is perfectionism worth the investment of time?”

10:44 PM Sep 18 2015 |

NavidArash

NavidArash

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow


This is one of my favorite quotes, according to this attitude I choose option no. 2. I would enjoy this cake with a cup of tea and (with a little exaggeration) I even would invite my neighbors and make a little celebration out of it.


I once read an interesting news on a magazine about creation of Ivory soap. When mixing the formula, they added too many air bubbles by mistake and this made the bar of soap float, however customers loved it, so the company decided to keep it that way. It’s amazing that how a mistake in production led to the creation of the incredible floating bar of soap.


So if we don’t keep saying “NO” to every imperfect or unusual happenings, life will offer more of unique tastes and opportunities to us.


If I bought into perfectionism, I would never post any comments in English cos of my imperfect English. I make mistakes and errors when I speak English or post comments but It doesn’t make sense not to speak English only because it doesn’t sound native. Getting skills like speaking a new language is time consuming so why do waste our time over perfectionism?

11:54 AM Sep 18 2015 |

DAMAVAND

DAMAVAND

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Thanks dear Alston, I totally agree with you about interrelation of languge and culture.

10:19 AM Jun 11 2013 |

englishteacher24/7

United States

Damavand and Emma you have it, good going!


Nijar, the cake tasted very good, especially the icing.


My thoughts:


Perfection is the goal, however, each step toward perfection is a series of learning experiences and we should assess the time factor to decide how close to perfection we want to pursue at each step.


What’s coming next:


Culture and language are inter-related. If you learn English but do not learn about the culture, you will have knowledge and limited understanding at best.


Therefore, I am working on a new “Do you understand this dialogue?” lesson to address this aspect of English. I hope to have it ready by early next week; see you there!

06:58 AM Jun 09 2013 |

Nijar

Nijar

Egypt

The cake hasn’t raised enough…HEEEE, here we go again!!


“Perfectionism” is a bank which I’ll invest my time in, guys I’ll be a millionaire :)


Let me depict some scenes ;


1-Nijar is in the kitchen to bake a cake for the guests who suppose to reach after an hour. All the containers are ready, She mixed eggs, sugar, butter.. etc, but ops she forgot a bunch of salt. What the scene will be? Complete baking to get a space go and prepare herself or will invest the time baking another one ?Okay for Nijar everything is possible ,she’ll try it again, looking at the clock ,and watching the timer every second with ahhh when she finishes!!


2-Nijar is in the kitchen to bake a cake and have a room of time, so the scene will be like that; she’ll bake it again and again and again to reach the perfect one, whatever maybe when she ends  and has the approval of everyone she thinks to do it over again:)


That’s in general, whatever if we looked to the scene from a professional view it’d be definitely different;


3-My teacher works hard on EB and invests every Fimtosecond to help Ebabians reach the level which they be satisfied with, I’m sure that after decades as long as this site will be found every member will sign in here will sure learn more and more from his lessons and say: He is the one.


What I wanted to say that when we invest our time to do something perfectly, be sure that it won’t go in vain!!


Time in this case will be a renewable resource every time someone chicks what you already did .In other words those who worked on a new idea, believed in it and invested all their time in to achieve the perfectionism, we still remember them till now and get the most out of their work, furthermore there are some who try from time to another to add and complete the road after them!!


So what do you think now my teacher, is the cake tasty enough?... hehe 

08:48 PM Jun 08 2013 |

3emma3

3emma3

Iraq

I will choose no.2. It is  unreasonable to waste the effort and time that i spend in doing it.  Next time I will be more attentive and try to follow the recipe perfectly.

09:59 AM Jun 08 2013 |

DAMAVAND

DAMAVAND

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I can simply answer NO! not in everything, if it doesn’t conflict with ethical rules, it seems nice, but in other cases, it needs more investigations for sure.

08:50 AM Jun 08 2013 |

englishteacher24/7

United States

Hindsight has 20/20 vision.


The scenario is this: You were baking a cake and realized before it was ready that you failed to add enough salt. You are correct in that a small amount of salt that didn’t get added is not vital. However, it has caused you to deviate from perfection.


This is the whole point of the scenario, is it worth the time to start over. The question remains: Is perfectionism in everything worth the investment of time?


Is close enough sometimes better than striving for perfection in every matter? Is it a better use of time to not make some things perfect and elevate other things with the time saved?

08:32 AM Jun 08 2013 |

DAMAVAND

DAMAVAND

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

In previous comment, I considered a situation where cake was made completely, and it was already ready to eat, in this case number 2, but if I have another chance to add salt, for sure number 1 is my choice! Indeed I assume that salt is necessary if it’s something not vital as much as other stuffs, number 2.

08:12 AM Jun 08 2013 |

englishteacher24/7

United States

Damavand, you make a good case for “perfectionism” and judging by your last paragraph it seems you choose option no. 1. Is this correct?

07:48 AM Jun 08 2013 |

DAMAVAND

DAMAVAND

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

Yes of course, by investment of time we can reach to perfectionism, in fact, time is the cost of our buying: “perfectionism”, in return of time we gain some experiences, with those experiences we can think a lot and make a perfect decision in many fields (perfectionism), and eventually it helps to prevent wasted time in other cases. Time isn’t renewable source, it’s a true fact, but perfectionism can avoid wasting time in other future cases, in result, we can conclude by spending some time to reach perfectionism, we can save some time more in other situations !! It’s a good deal!!  Not only we don’t miss our time but also we gain much benefit in using our perfect ideas in the correct way without need to repair or waste something extra.


In your example, dear Alston, probably I try to make it up with something else, maybe using some stuff in order to decorate it, such as salty chocolate :D in this case we can say most of people think like this, when they feel lack of something in their life and they cannot make a change in the inner structures, they try to repair it in outside, maybe in the appearance sometimes. 

07:29 AM Jun 08 2013 |

englishteacher24/7

United States

Ola, therefore you choose option no. 2 for baking this cake.  So the question remains, “Is perfectionism worth the investment of time?”

07:22 AM Jun 08 2013 |

ola33

ola33

Japan

EnglishTeacher, I try to stick to the recipe. It’s always a better taste. But, if i missed something, I’d try to remember about it next time. I’ll finish the cake, calming myself down, it’s ok, it’s ok and then, i’ll erupt –  no it’s not ok, because of that small amount of ingredient, the batter didn’t rise and the cake is not the one as it should be. :)

10:54 PM Jun 07 2013 |

englishteacher24/7

United States

Emma, you’re welcome!  


I want to say there are some “deep thinkers” on Englishbaby and I appreciate your thoughts.  I see the responses have been more from a philosophical perspective.  Therefore, let me clarify the sense of the question.


For example: If you were baking a cake and following the recipe exactly, and proceeded to bake the cake but remembered that you forgot a few grams of salt the recipe called for, would you:


1. Stop and start over to follow the recipe perfectly.


2. Compromise and accept the cake without the few grams of salt.


3. Become frustrated and stop trying to bake a cake.


4. Other reasons.


Ola, Nijar, and Others, what do you think?


09:15 PM Jun 07 2013 |

3emma3

3emma3

Iraq

Thanks our dearest teacher for your interesting topics. 

06:28 PM Jun 07 2013 |

ola33

ola33

Japan

Englishteacher,  partially yes, if not to time yourself, I think. The endless time will make perfection dragging long long days and hours until it will dissipate into another form. Yes, the perfection needs  time but it shouldn’t be too long. It’s all about concentration, pulling yourself together and having it done. If it’s done consistantly and persistently with the time discipline, there will be a result. Every day there will be changes. Time, deadline and having done. Sounds stressful but the reward is ahead :)

03:36 PM Jun 06 2013 |

englishteacher24/7

United States

From an all-inclusive perspective your thoughts are valid. However, the question I posed is limited to the physical realm. In other words, if you invest the time to make some things perfect, is it worth the time to do it? Time is a non-renewable resourse, therefore, to make some things perfect will take time.


You have to assess the benefit of perfection verses the time spent to do it.

01:30 PM Jun 06 2013 |

1 person likes this

Nijar

Nijar

Egypt

Perfectionism, perfectionnisme,  完全主義, perfeccionismo, that what we look for ,work hard to reach the ceiling .There are some people who not be satisfied unless they up to the end ,nevertheless maybe after awhile when they  look back  they find out  they can do it more perfect than that, time plays an essential role here; when we grow up we be more wiser ,polished with experience, get involved into situations and look at a topic in a different point of view. 


Life itself which we live not perfect, it was existed like that to give us a chance playing a role into it ,seeking for coming nearer the perfectionism, that’s why day after day we see the evolution of the life specially in tech which make us looking forward the best in the future and raising hope which we see in our children eyes ,submit the flag to the new generations who assume  to finish the mission in a most perfect way and so on…


Unfortunately inside the same group ; students, scientists, professors or whoever, we’ll find individualism ,what my friend can do maybe I can’t ,but sure both of us will give it a try working on our capabilities to get the red carpet under our feet and definitely reach the peak, I won’t deny sometimes when we seek the perfectionism we destroy something in our road, we are humans ,it’s okay to make mistakes but for me if the perfectionism which we look for will kill a soul I won’t love to be perfect ,we all should work for the humanity.   


Perfectionism means success with less mistakes ,put all your energy into something ,raise the tape voice of  your mind up. As if when Nijar enters the kitchen to bake a cake and her mom says; Hey sweetie, bake it well ,put your heart in it and don’t forget the decoration, yummy :)

01:28 PM Jun 06 2013 |

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