"Good enough"

[bdpalace]

My HS English teacher was disgusted with my lack of effort vs potential and accused me of "striving for mediocrity". I still resemble that remark and wear it as a badge of honor.

[KerMegan]

I am reminded of a story that President Eisenhower was shocked (SHOCKED!) when informed that fully 1/2 of all Americans are below average in Intelligence...

(hint- this is a math joke..)

[LosUno]

I don't care what you thing that is FUNNY..opps, that might be the guy I work with....

My "good enough" seems much more removed from perfection than most.

[Rug]

One of my dads favorite lines: "Nobody will notice that driving at 50 miles per hour." (Usually referring work done on the car or the house.)

[oldgringo]

I do adequate, but shoddy work, but I certainly admire the perfection of others.

[Perkolady]

I really find that if I start a sewing project with somewhat of a "just schelpp it together", or "just have fun with it" attitude, it always seems to come out pretty good- and definitely better than if I set out to be picky about it. Go figure!

[WV]

I used to be a raving perfectionist, but then I learned the law of diminishing returns and now I'm much better. That, and the principle of opportunity cost have changed my way of doing things quite a bit. I still do a very good job, but have guidelines for when I'm taking too much time on something. And it's not just gear making, I use the "good enough" rule at work, everywhere practically.

Acer

Acer, you did too good a job of explaining that. You need to join my Recovering Perfectionist Support Group (meetings 3 x day, M-F, with a weekend hotline). (I will now hit "Preview Post" to make sure there are no typos before hitting "Submit Reply".)

[Albert Skye]

What is "good enough" depends on context. I like to consider the long now.

I seem to have some obsessive compulsive tendency but I generally direct it toward useful ends. There's a difference between neurotic perfectionism and prudent practice.

What may be good enough at the time can become a terrible nuisance in the future. Taking a little longer and doing extra work in the beginning can result in less time and work in the end (but that can be difficult to explain to those who are busy running from one late appointment to the next).

[gunny]

PERFECTIONISM ~ Recovering, not recovered, but a lot better!
Would not start a project since I could not perfectly figure out the outcome.
Creates severe procrastionation.
Posted on the wall behind my desk "Pobody’s Nerfect” as a reminder, gets a lot of comments.
Another I learned thru time “Good Enough Is Perfect”.

Don

[Ramblinrev]

When I was building scenery for professional theater we were always facing a last minute crunch to get everything set up and completed in 36 hours of straight work. That's the time we had to get one show down (struck) and the other show "put in". By the time we were about 30 hours into the changeover the mantra tended to become "If it's done it's beautiful."