Excellence and Perfection

“Be excellent to each other” immortal lines by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter from Bill and Teds excellent adventure. 

Strictly speaking excellence is a talent or quality which is unusually good and so surpasses ordinary standard. In short what the two characters mean is to be better than good to other people in your dealings given the applicable standard of society at the time. The meaning of that line in the 80s given that strict definition might not match the meaning today. 

So then what is excellence - it cannot have a meaning that changes with situations and time. It requires a dive into ancient wisdom to understand it better. 

Aristotle and Plato both make a reference to arête in many works which meant an outstanding fitness for purpose. Arête may also mean moral virtue; and it would be explicitly linked with knowledge. The expressions "virtue is knowledge" and "Arete is knowledge" are used interchangeably. In this context the highest human potential for anyone is knowledge and all other human abilities are derived from this central capacity. This would mean that excellence from an Ancient Greek perspective is a measure of the attainment of the highest potential of that individual.  This does not talk about quality or the value associated with that measurement. 

To understand the impact of quality or value one should read Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. The author (Pirsig) has an interesting take on it based in eastern philosophy. Simply put he says that quality or value cannot be defined because it always comes (its existence) before any intellectual construct of it (the perceived quality or value. Sounds nuts but I agree as it is most logical) . He says quality only exists in the present and can be potentially accessed by all. 

Sounds familiar ? 

Tat Twam Asi (Thou are that) this asserts that everything you think you are, and everything you think you perceive, are undivided. Essentially quality or value which is governed by perception is the same as what quality is. It is what it is - A is A. The Greeks expanded this concept to create the law of identity. A thing is itself.

Or 

If one reads the Tao te Ching - the Way  - this says that the Tao has ineffable qualities that prevent it from being defined or expressed in words. Which is why the explanation of Tao revolves around the relationship between emptiness and the balance. 

Essentially quality or value is a ratio of what is and is not. 

Heavy stuff; excellence - fitness for purpose where the perception of quality is only presented for the brief moment of time while the fitness for purpose is being demonstrated making it outstanding. 

Perfection on the other hand is utilising the art of practice to become consistent in performing something at a similar level of quality day in and day out. (I could become perfect at doing a bad job) it takes a very long time to raise the bar utilising the art of practice; sports scientists have figured out that it takes 10000 hours of practice to improve and change the level (quality) at which one can perform. The only type of perfection worth undertaking is perfecting the art of improving one’s ability to be able to be excellent. 

I tend to agree with the ancient Greeks - arête - outstanding fitness for purpose. The perceived quality as the ancient Indians and Chinese figured out is presented in the briefest of instances. The pursuit of excellence is worthy. Excellence is the best you could be given your potential anything less is a failure to be true to the potential you have. 

C 

Disclosure - I have by this very definition failed many times in the past to be true to my potential and have learned from the experience to conduct myself in a different manner when presented with a similar situation. This is my pursuit -  to be true to my potential.