4 ms·

Best thing my first boss ever told me and I find my self repeating to my self all the time - “perfection is the enemy of good”

by taf2 5y ago

Frost1x 5y ago
Now, get most 'bosses' to understand this concept. If you expect perfection and punish good, then you get people who only push for perfection. There's a delicate balance from management to push people to try and create something better and pressuring them in every way they can to deliver perfection. From my experience, it tends to land on the latter.
zelphirkalt 5y ago
Loads of people are on quickfire mode, judging every little "but we could do better" as "perfect" and throwing out that phrase. It is really annoying. When you want to invest a little more time, because you already know, what problems will bite you in your behind later, and then you hear that phrase. Whoever outputs that phrase should first think about whether they are stopping improvement, by labelling it as "perfect", to make it match this pseudo-wise phrase.
- taf2 5y ago
  I hear ya it’s not really something I want to tell people or be told more it’s a great thing to tell yourself to enable you to sometimes push past a very hard problem…. Like ok big picture I could keep optimizing this sort routine or I could deliver the stats to the end user tomorrow by just finishing the table UI to show a number… I totally agree with you it’s just more of a tool you can use to help yourself push on and not get consumed by a detail that may or may not matter… it’s like this is the art side of programming that isn’t always obvious- is it important to get this detail right or can we get it good enough… sometimes it’s important sometimes it’s not
- cutemonster 5y ago
  > .. problems will bite you in your behind later, and then you hear that phrase. Then maybe you could reply: "yes but at least it has to be good enough. It isn't, yet -- this and that and that will come back and bite us"
andrekandre 5y ago
i have another one: "don't let good be the enemy of what is actually needed"

Best thing my first boss ever told me and I find my self repeating to my self all the time - “perfection is the enemy of good”

by taf2 5y ago

Best thing my first boss ever told me and I find my self repeating to my self all the time - “perfection is the enemy of good”

Frost1x 5y ago

Now, get most 'bosses' to understand this concept. If you expect perfection and punish good, then you get people who only push for perfection. There's a delicate balance from management to push people to try and create something better and pressuring them in every way they can to deliver perfection. From my experience, it tends to land on the latter.

zelphirkalt 5y ago

Loads of people are on quickfire mode, judging every little "but we could do better" as "perfect" and throwing out that phrase. It is really annoying. When you want to invest a little more time, because you already know, what problems will bite you in your behind later, and then you hear that phrase. Whoever outputs that phrase should first think about whether they are stopping improvement, by labelling it as "perfect", to make it match this pseudo-wise phrase.

taf2 5y ago
I hear ya it’s not really something I want to tell people or be told more it’s a great thing to tell yourself to enable you to sometimes push past a very hard problem…. Like ok big picture I could keep optimizing this sort routine or I could deliver the stats to the end user tomorrow by just finishing the table UI to show a number… I totally agree with you it’s just more of a tool you can use to help yourself push on and not get consumed by a detail that may or may not matter… it’s like this is the art side of programming that isn’t always obvious- is it important to get this detail right or can we get it good enough… sometimes it’s important sometimes it’s not
cutemonster 5y ago
> .. problems will bite you in your behind later, and then you hear that phrase. Then maybe you could reply: "yes but at least it has to be good enough. It isn't, yet -- this and that and that will come back and bite us"

andrekandre 5y ago

i have another one: "don't let good be the enemy of what is actually needed"