Two ways to hide

Average work and perfect work look like opposite ends of a scale. In practice they are the same move.

Both are places to hide.

The person who hands in average work is protected. They followed the template, did what everyone does, used the form that was given to them. If it falls flat, the fault belongs to the template, or the custom, or whoever made the rules. They are never really exposed, because nothing in the work is really theirs.

The person who never hands anything in is protected too, just more elegantly. There is always one more thing that could be better. A paragraph that could be tighter, a colour that is not quite right, a corner that a careful eye might catch. As long as a single flaw remains to be discussed, nobody can fault them for holding on. They look like the one with standards.

Neither of them has to stand behind something finished, in public, with their name on it. That is what both are avoiding.

That is why the usual advice fails. Tell the perfectionist to relax and they slide into the template, which is simply the other hiding place with a lower bar. Tell the average worker to care more and they discover the endless polish. People move from one shelter to the other and believe they have changed.

The way out of both is the same, and it is unglamorous. Decide what this piece has to do before starting it, make something that does exactly that, and put it in front of people when it does.

Average is not humility, and perfect is not a standard. Both are ways of never being seen.