In the words of JVN, "Design is an iterative process".
As is perfection.
We as a community, both here on CD and in FIRST must strive for perfection. This doesn't mean winning every regional, as it is in our human nature to be competitive, it means constantly improving. Making sure that for every result, there is a certain cognition and open attempt at self improvement.
It isn't teaching people that FIRST means 'Coopertition' or 'Gracious Professionalism', I believe it should be instead that FIRST means the pursuit of perfection through iteration of not only yourself, but your peers. Those things must be taught, true, but it is the constant reflection on the true nature of those phrases and their applications that truly teaches a person how to be better. In the end, that is our aim, is it not? To make ourselves and those around us better. Because it really is true: the better the parts, the more perfect the whole.
I have faith in the ideal of persistence, tempered by the recognition that perfection is a process, and I try to apply this to myself and those around me (when convenient
).
Of course, all this spewing from a 17 year old aside.