"What cannot be named cannot be known. What cannot be known cannot be found. What cannot be found can't be understood."
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A mundane conversation presents a sublime noun.
Quality is a word that I've started thinking of more and more, not in how I can create or destroy it, but in how others are using it and what they mean. Somebody in the manufacturing industry would constantly play "hide and seek" with the word, always trying to ensure its work is on the same level. Others might think they want it but need to know what it means. After some weeks, I consider myself better prepared to answer this - of course, I'm comparing with myself only.
Whenever I ask others what it means, they tend to converge to the "conformance to specifications" definition. If a product meets the design specifications, offering a satisfaction factor that fulfills all the customer's expectations, then the product has quality. Here, products can be interchanged with services or experiences. This offers a way to objectively measure and remove any esoteric attributes from the subject. But from there, a few questions come up, asking for answers.
What happens if customers need to learn the requirements? Does a quality product mean an average and not something extraordinary? Is there a spectrum of quality, or is it binary with a specific threshold after which we attribute quality? And there are more, but we need some answers before we move forward.
A sublime noun
I've started this reflection as part of my journey, to be precise - to understand the words I use very well - to live a simpler life. Understanding it means we can cultivate it for a more prosperous life. Pursuing quality in life is not necessarily a virtue but can lead to a more fulfilling and enriched experience. By striving for quality, we learn to appreciate ourselves, each other, and the things surrounding us much more deeply.
So, let me start writing some ideas; I promise these are not exhaustive. These are incorrect in all ways, shapes, or forms—they are here to ensure my thoughts have texture, not just color. If we meet, I might have other views tomorrow because that is how life changes us.
From general to localized
- Quality is present even if it's not observed. So, from here on, let's concentrate on how we can attribute it to things. Since it's an act of interpretation, a reaction to seeing something made by others, we must ensure we are also equipped to spot the pieces of evidence.
- Appreciating quality and creating it are usually together, but they don't need to be. Someone can genuinely appreciate and understand a thing's qualities without needing to make them. An additional dynamic layer can interfere with the measure since at least two people are involved (one creating, the other examining).
- There are degrees of quality, a thought that we can agree on quickly. What we can't agree on that easily is that we transmute this imaginary ladder in a binary dilemma. We don't quantify it, but how can you do that to a spectrum? Of course, excellent quality is just quality, right?
- Usually, one does not outgrow quality; it will always remain in mind, sometimes haunting and other times provoking.
- One naturally detects quality in people, seeing quality better in the creator than the piece. It can be the one you ask for advice, the one who never makes a wrong suggestion, or the one who always has the vocabulary you seek.
- That threshold, from which you can differentiate between lousy quality and quality, usually comes from an event. And everybody will be able to remember in great detail how that event came to be and what unfolded. Because something of this level of greatness does change your worldview, and you are happy for it.
- We can only achieve quality without searching for it in our wildest dreams; even there, we might have issues. Focus, intention, sweat, blood, and tears are all required. Because if you want quality, you need to check each point, each line, and each plane, which can take a toll on you.
- Quality in one aspect of life doesn't impact other parts. Sometimes, a gas station coffee is enough for a sommelier.
- You cannot have quality everywhere in your life, for this would imply taking an interest and ensuring all details of said things have quality. This not only is demanding but can also steer people away.
- You cannot find quality if you only go deep; you must go wide. As such, one can discover the quality or lack thereof by considering a heterogeneous party of inputs. We have at least five senses; let's use them.
- Critique should be easy to use. Note that you can arrive at irony or satire with this approach, but that is not what you seek. What you seek is something without a lousy intent, something earnest.
- Quality is usually a great supplier of good decision-making. It recommends a well-formed view and never runs away from reality.
- Quality doesn't follow a code, rules, or guidelines. Sometimes, you do bad things, sometimes good ones—it's never a direct path or easy solution. We are lucky that correctness is in line with quality, but remember that it can be more. Quality is different. It intrigues, compels, moves, enchants, fascinates, and seduces.
- Sensibility is usually included in quality. So, it means that we need to be vulnerable to the world, and the world will bounce off us. Whenever we seek the combination of skill and soul, we tend to disregard the world around us.
- The first-ever snob was too motivated to search for quality. It is easy to become one; thus, there is a natural filter that each of us needs to pass one way or another. You already know a few examples, right?
- Two lines are parallel but seem not so: quality and net worth. Being rich only ensures an intolerance for lousy quality; you must still work for the rest.
- Creating quality forces more of it upon its maker. The first step is managing self-expression - a quest that only some do manage to finish. The second step is to allow yourself to be more sensitive. So much more that it's now a part of you, that you know it so close - one of the peculiarities we will carry to fulfill this quest. Another framing for this is " turpentine." It comes from Picasso's remark that " when art critics get together, they talk about form and structure and meaning. When artists get together, they discuss where you can buy cheap turpentine."
And back
Reflections take up a lot of time and space in my mind. It's been a journey for me, but who knows how many more are to follow?
