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libertangoFrom a comment thread of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jaylake's:
It's not just in writing.
In the techie/engineering/computer fields, you'll hear two statements again and again:
"Good enough is the enemy of perfection."
"Perfection is the enemy of good enough."
The world tends to reward "good enough" vastly more than "perfection" (viz. Windows vs. Linux). But the seeming endless war between the two camps has led me to believe that "is" really can be an equals sign, just like we learned in arithmetical word problems.
{pause}
Big flashing insight: Startups are almost all "good enough" organizations. Older, more entrenched companies tend to be "perfection" organizations, because they're either afraid of liability, pissing off customers, or the former being a subset of the latter ("We can't release that yet -- Dell still needs to test some more").
*^*^*
Expansion that was too techie to continue:
This was the problem with Vista. Microsoft, a longtime "good enough" organization -- and the true genius of Billg has been keeping it a "good enough" organization despite its size for decades -- instead has now evolved/devolved into a "perfection" organization.
Linux' problem, perhaps inherited from Richard Stallman, is that it's always been a community "perfection"-heads, and thus has always seemed old and crochety beyond its years.
Perhaps there's a split here of perfection-through-inclination, and perfection-through-fear, and Linux advocates and some engineers are the first while ossified companies are the second. The practical results remain the same, though.
jaylake's:It's not just in writing.
In the techie/engineering/computer fields, you'll hear two statements again and again:
"Good enough is the enemy of perfection."
"Perfection is the enemy of good enough."
The world tends to reward "good enough" vastly more than "perfection" (viz. Windows vs. Linux). But the seeming endless war between the two camps has led me to believe that "is" really can be an equals sign, just like we learned in arithmetical word problems.
{pause}
Big flashing insight: Startups are almost all "good enough" organizations. Older, more entrenched companies tend to be "perfection" organizations, because they're either afraid of liability, pissing off customers, or the former being a subset of the latter ("We can't release that yet -- Dell still needs to test some more").
*^*^*
Expansion that was too techie to continue:
This was the problem with Vista. Microsoft, a longtime "good enough" organization -- and the true genius of Billg has been keeping it a "good enough" organization despite its size for decades -- instead has now evolved/devolved into a "perfection" organization.
Linux' problem, perhaps inherited from Richard Stallman, is that it's always been a community "perfection"-heads, and thus has always seemed old and crochety beyond its years.
Perhaps there's a split here of perfection-through-inclination, and perfection-through-fear, and Linux advocates and some engineers are the first while ossified companies are the second. The practical results remain the same, though.
