Close enough is perfect

In our fourth installment of the Forging Community blog series, Benjy briefly expounds upon the FAZ, a philosophy which is in many ways core to Balsa Man.

This morning our beloved Smallest, Colin Fahrion, said something to me that I found truly inspiring. In the tradition of Zen koans like "Does a dog have Buddha nature?" he offered me insight in the form of a question: "Where's the fucking blog entry you said you were going to write two weeks ago?"

This question snapped me out of an unproductive mindset—namely, that it's hard to be creative—and replaced it with a far more useful approach: turn the goddamn braincrank until your monkey mind poops out some art, then go get lunch.

I am reminded of this brief essay: The Cult of Done Manifesto

The whole thing is brilliant, not only because it was written in 15 minutes, but because it's a razor-sharp X-acto blade you can plunge into the cardboard excuses that keep you from being awesome. Foremost among these, for me, is this:

Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.

Balsa Man is a standout example of what the philosopher Rakim Yay termed the Fleeting Autonomous Zonelet—the FAZ_._

Rakim's essay comes to us from a single surviving manuscript hastily scribbled in a taxi in South Passaic on the back of a coupon good for one order of Krab Rangoon at the Jin Glatt Kosher Chinese Restaurant. The essay reads, in full:

Between now and soon, there is a wall; pee on it.

1 beef chow mein / rice for 2 / free Krab

Fortunately for posterity, the coupon had expired, and the manuscript was published in 1993 in the now-defunct "Dress Warm", the official samizdat of the Balsa Man underground community.

In conclusion, don't worry about finishing anything. Just start, and the rest will