For the past few weeks, I’ve been vibe coding a VHS tape label maker in my free time. It’s a little label designer that can generate labels for any existing movie or show. Why’d I make it? I love seeing all of my favorite movies and shows rendered out on the VHS format.
It didn’t take long to get it good enough to showcase, an MVP. But I kept thinking about how to make it even better. I added color options, export features, trying to build a gallery (shelved), and printable css so that you could print onto a sheet of 10 labels.
So there’s a term for this: Gold plating.
Actually there’s a lot of terms for this, like scope creep, procrastination, etc. But the idea of “Gold Plating” is a specific type of procrastination. It is the most unnecessary perfectionism.
I wasn’t wasting time—I was improving a project. But was it needed? The site was already good enough for me to use, and fun enough to show off to the world, so why keep making features nobody asked for.
I was just adding a veneer to something that didn’t need it. I was gold plating.
Gold plating is when you put in extra effort that wasn’t asked for and doesn’t really add meaningful value. The term comes from an old project management school of thought. Gold plating means going beyond the original requirements—adding features no one needs, spending extra time on aesthetic improvements, or over-engineering a solution.
It happens everywhere. A software developer adds a slick animation to an app that no one asked for. A metal fabricator perfects a weld that will never be seen. A designer spends hours tweaking a layout that was already good enough. Gold plating feels productive, but more often than not, it just burns time and resources.
The tricky part is knowing where to draw the line. In creative work, we want things to be great, not just good enough. But real efficiency comes from understanding when something is finished—when the effort stops adding real value and just becomes a personal rabbit hole.
Which is all to say, wrap it up!
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