Perfect is the Enemy of Good

When confronted with a choice to get busy doing the most good, or waiting for an opportunity to do it perfectly, do not hesitate. Instead, get busy.

The concept is simple, yet I often fail to put it into practice. I tend to wait to get started on a project until I have the whole thing mapped out, start to finish. I want to know the players, the steps, the contingencies, and the likely outcome. I want to know that if I begin the project, I will be able to finish it and finish it successfully. If I lack the confidence that I am able to do either, then I am tempted not to begin at all.

Apparently, I’m not the only one with this problem. Many variations of this concept have been promoted by some of the most intriguing characters in history. As best I can tell, the origin lies somewhere here:

• The better is enemy of the good – Italian proverb
• The best is the enemy of good – Voltaire (likely citing the above)

This notion was espoused wonderfully by Robert Watson-Watt, the physicist who developed the early detection radar system in Britain during World War II, particularly during the Battle of Britain. German bombers had engaged in air-raids on London without adequate or successful resistance. Britain decided that it must create a way to detect the bombers flying over the English Channel in time for its fighters to scramble into the air and develop a defense. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, as people attempted to develop the “perfect” early detection system. Watson-Watt famously said: “Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes.” History proved that the “third best” was good enough.

Along those same lines, the U.S. General George Patton said “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” He realized that while the planners planned, men died on the battlefield.

David McCullough, in his book “Path Between the Seas”, which details the process of building the Panama Canal, quotes someone involved in that venture as saying “Do something if it is wrong, for you can correct that, but there is no way to correct nothing.” My father used a similar, shortened version: “Do something, even if it’s wrong.” Typically, he said this while sitting behind a tentative driver in the middle of traffic. But the point was well taken. Seeking perfection will often lead to complete inaction. We should not be so afraid to make a wrong move that we don’t move at all.

And so it happened that an idea for a public to promote both my musings, as well as to share my experience of the loss of an infant took shape in the form of this very blog. I had no written material to present, and no idea how to put the blog together. Yet, my desire to purge, let go, and encourage was so strong that I plodded ahead anyway. I have been extremely blessed throughout the process, and I’m very glad for having ventured out into the unknown.