It takes more work than others know

During the production of "The Dark Knight", Heath Ledger once insisted on trying to apply his own makeup.

"Maybe we'll learn something," he told director Chris Nolan.

Ledger ended up with makeup all over his hands. The result made sense — applying clown makeup across your face would surely make a mess. The detail stuck and in certain parts of the film, you can see Ledger's makeup-stained hands.

As Ledger suggested, the exercise yielded a lesson: some things you can only learn through doing them yourself.

Small details like makeup on his hands or licking his lips to keep the makeup on became as much a part of the character as the lines or costume. It helped emphasize his chaotic nature in a way that dialogue alone falls short of doing.

In other words, to be the best you must obsess over every last detail, even seemingly irrelevant ones.

But what's the point if most people don't notice something like makeup on a character's hands?

Although people may not notice individual minor details, the combination of each small detail determines the quality of your work.

"All those unseen details combine to produce something that's just stunning, like a thousand barely audible voices all singing in tune," Paul Graham said about the details on one of Leonardo da Vinci's portraits.

Likewise, the makeup stains point at a theme rather than an exception. Ledger also improvised iconic scenes, created his own “tics” for The Joker, and transcribed parts of the script by hand so that his lines felt personal.

He won an Oscar for the performance because of this relentlessness, even if the Oscar voters had no idea of what details went into his preparation or performance.

For most things in life, there is a point of diminishing returns where it's wise to stop working.

But that's for being "good enough".

Being GREAT requires a constant obsession; taking things to the point where returns become so small, you're the only one who directly notices them.

People noticed Kobe Bryant’s improved footwork after one offseason, but what they didn’t know about were the tap dancing classes he had taken.

What others will notice is the separation you have created between yourself and the competition.

"It's the same with everything I do: the day I say 'It's good' is the day I should start doing something else." -Heath Ledger

I learned about Ledger and the production of The Dark Knight film in Tom Shone's book "The Nolan Variations: The Movies, Mysteries, and Marvels of Christopher Nolan"

The Paul Graham quote is from his brilliant essay "Hackers and Painters"

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