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“Good” is the enemy of “perfect“

And vice versa, sure, (“perfect is the enemy of good” is an old Italian proverb) but sometimes “good” just isn’t worth it compared to “perfect”. I definitively acknowledge that a lot of times, it’s “perfect” that’s not worth it compared to “good”. Trick is to recognize when.

It’s really a fallacy to always go for good over perfect.

You wanna go for good over perfect when there’s diminishing returns or when perfect is significantly more difficult to attain than good.

Basically look at these two deltas:

Cost of Perfect – Cost of Good
Value of Perfect – Value of Good

If the first delta is small and the second delta is huge... that’s when you pretty much need to hold out for perfect, or at least for “better”. Especially when the ostensible “good“ is pretty bad.

Ya gotta case-by-case these things, sometimes the hunt for “perfect” can really trip you up. Learn to have some awareness around this.

Keep it Future Proof

There’s a really good rule of thumb I use all the time.

Is good gonna be an obstacle for later perfect, or a stepping stone or interim solution towards it? A lot of my favorite solutions are good, while also being a good foundation (or even just easy to get out of the way) if I later wanna fix the issue for real.

I really bristle against a “solution” that is painting us deep into a corner, which is all-too-common.