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Two projects, a small table and a wall cabinet,<\/strong> now distant memories from 25-30 years ago, occupied a considerable amount of my attention as I endeavored to advance my woodworking skills. They were moderately complex<\/strong> pieces. The table involved blind and through mortise and tenons, and curved legs. The cabinet involved multiple frame-and-panels, doors, drawers, partitions, and lots of dovetails.<\/p>\n The designs<\/strong> were pretty good, the wood selection<\/strong> was very good, and there was a decent amount of good workmanship<\/strong> including lots of clean joinery. Unfortunately, I eventually got stuck with some poor choices in several areas:<\/strong> coordinating the alignment of certain components, assembling parts with work left to be done that was then impossible to do well, delayed decisions on some joinery strategies, and poor selections for pre-finishing the panels in the cabinet.<\/p>\n I could not<\/strong> bring myself to finish these projects. Both lingered, partly assembled, in the shop for a long time because I also could not bring myself to destroy them. Yet, eventually,<\/strong> I did destroy both of them.<\/p>\n Why?<\/strong> It was not a matter of imperfections<\/a>; all projects have those<\/a>. It was because I knew these pieces would never have that fundamental rightness that produces joy.<\/strong> Further effort would be drudgery. My consolations were that I learned,<\/strong> and time would better be spent on work with real promise.<\/p>\n