How can you overcome giving one more turn of the screw

[Bublehead]

My MOCs, when finished, are rarely revisited.  They may take a while to complete, and I do go through many iterations, but at the end, it is complete, it will only get an update when a portion of the build can be improved ONLY due to a newly released element that solves the original problem and reduces what I call a “kludge monster” construct to a stronger, more reliable, and more play worthy model

Edited February 22, 2021 by Bublehead

[AI toothbrush]

On 2/20/2021 at 11:58 PM, jorgeopesi said:

I do not know if the expresion is it right on english, but is when you start a neverending process of improvement. On big and medium MOCs there are so many ways to do it something that I can building an axle for days looking for the best way to do it and when I achieve anything I like I think if the first ones would not be bettter and I start again like Sisifo, I am watching Ulises 31 again... 

I say a moc is good enough to be finished if Lego would release it.

Edit: Ok I did not phrase it good enough. What I meant was that there would be no damage to the parts and no unofficial parts(except for some commonly used third party parts).

Edited February 22, 2021 by AI toothbrush
Badly written.

[Milan]

2 hours ago, AI toothbrush said:

I say a moc is good enough to be finished if Lego would release it.

LEGO has very different guidelines, rules and approaches when designing and releasing models compared to us.

But, let's not steer away too much from the topic.

[MinusAndy]

I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, I reckon that the whole point in building Mocs is that there’s always another turn of the screw to be made. I mean the whole process, if you’re a grownup is basically relaxation/distraction so why not tinker? It’s not like it’s important.

I know for a fact that whilst my rs200 is “finished”, there’s a few things I’d change, and one day I will. The beauty of Lego is the finish line is totally flexible.

Maybe a moc is only finished when it’s been photographed and dismantled.

[proran]

So many wonderful thoughts and opinions here. I am definitely a perfectionist. And as @DrJB rightfully said it can very bad for work and life. I am constantly fighting it and, of course, it is very hard for to let things go at work and at home. So when it comes to hobby, it's a happy place for me. Lego is the only place where I can satisfy my perfectionism. And I go all the way. That's why you haven't seen a MOC from me for 5 years. My big one was finished 2 years ago, but I am not publishing it since still find some things to tweak. It never stops to amaze me what optimization can accomplish. I refine a mechanism until it all clicks together. And that feeling when everything finally fits together just perfectly is very specific and I know it very well. In most cases it will be very clear to me that I have achieved at least a local optimum. It's kind of hard to explain. But I am sure some of you will understand. And that moment is pure joy.

[jorgeopesi]

2 hours ago, proran said:

So many wonderful thoughts and opinions here. I am definitely a perfectionist. And as @DrJB rightfully said it can very bad for work and life. I am constantly fighting it and, of course, it is very hard for to let things go at work and at home. So when it comes to hobby, it's a happy place for me. Lego is the only place where I can satisfy my perfectionism. And I go all the way. That's why you haven't seen a MOC from me for 5 years. My big one was finished 2 years ago, but I am not publishing it since still find some things to tweak. It never stops to amaze me what optimization can accomplish. I refine a mechanism until it all clicks together. And that feeling when everything finally fits together just perfectly is very specific and I know it very well. In most cases it will be very clear to me that I have achieved at least a local optimum. It's kind of hard to explain. But I am sure some of you will understand. And that moment is pure joy.

I understand you perfectly.

[1gor]

Well I have one thing to say how I overcome it - missing particular parts... 

[doug72]

I find with any MOCs I build it is usually 2 steps forward, one step back until you are happy.

Quite often you are happy but later on in the build a new problem arises and you need to back track again !
When I get completely stuck it is usually means a total strip down and start again, learning from past mistakes.

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Doug72

[Lipko]

1 hour ago, Doug72 said:

I find with any MOCs I build it is usually 2 steps forward, one step back until you are happy.

Quite often you are happy but later on in the build a new problem arises and you need to back track again !
When I get completely stuck it is usually means a total strip down and start again, learning from past mistakes.

 

I wouldn't call that perfectionism (and many other examples in many posts EDIT: maybe I confused the thread with another). Perfectionism is improving something that already works good enough for the given situation. On a space space ship, nothing seems to be too perfectionist. On a Lego model, improving the suspension or bucket arm geometry to have +-1° precise angles does seem perfectionism. I think Jorge refers to this kind.

I'm not a perfectionist at all as I stated earlier. But this doesn't mean I don't spend 20+ hours for just designing a hood on a simple supercar, or that I don't have 10 different prototypes to have something that does the job.
In my workplace and in programming usually it takes me one shot to have a usable end product. With Lego, it takes 10. But it's no way a more perfectionist approach compared to my workplace approach.

 

Maybe the stimulus threshold of the "everything falls into place" and "what feels good is optimal" thing depends on the person, and I have this one lower, because I do feel it sometimes even without actually having a perfect solution.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Lipko

[Lipko]

On ‎2‎/‎21‎/‎2021 at 9:14 AM, GTS said:

Third way is to acknowledge that you need more know-how and buy/download other people's ideas/pdfs/. Basically go get inspiration from the other makers here. And steal their ideas creatively.

I missed this one, and I agree with it with a little twist: I sometimes take a look at some very respected/praised models to conclude that if something is good enough for that model, that it's pretty damn good for my model too. Building one such model when I was a rookie was an enormous relief for me. Before that I struggled with making a model solid as a rock. But building that model (which was considered solid and very well designed) taught me that my models are already solid enough. In fact, that model felt much flimsier than mine.
This also applies to functions. If something is enough in models that's probably the most rebuilt MOCs (that time when I was active), than it's enough for my model too. I'm referring to Crowkillers' cars. In my opinion, they are still the most balanced (cool but toy-ish looks that speak the Lego language very well, functions, playability/sturdiness, building quality) cars out there.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Lipko

[Kostq]

Yup, that sudden tweak of the "settings" menu in your head feels great.

I still over-brace everything, then I run out of parts and discover that section X can do without half of the pins...

[jorgeopesi]

7 hours ago, GTS said:

Yup, that sudden tweak of the "settings" menu in your head feels great.

I still over-brace everything, then I run out of parts and discover that section X can do without half of the pins...

More or less what I feel but without the final discover, I do something, it works, the proportions are right and it is enough strong but something inside me thinks sure it can be done with less parts...