When is good enough?

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When is "good" enough?
The 80% solution


Written by Rio Denali

PhotobucketPerfection in all areas is simply not realistic.  We are all faced with finite resources, with only so much time to get things done, so much energy to use, and so much money to spend.  Life is a balancing act; if you use too much of your resources in any one area, you are stealing them from another.
  • Ask any attorney working 70 hours per week how their love life is?  
  • Ask anyone who spends 2 hours per day working out, how much of a social life they have outside of the gym?  
  • Ask anyone who takes years off from work to raise a family, if it has affected their career?  
Now each of these people may be satisfied with their choices, but satisfaction is not what we are talking about here.  The law of finite resources dictates that with only so much time or energy , or money available, we take from one area to fund another.  It just comes down to how you want to split the pie.

We all make choices as to how we will spend our resources, 
and those cumulative choices determine every aspect of our lives.

  • I have a friend who can't afford the basics.  She can't pay her electric bill on time every month.  Her carpet is so threadworn and full of holes that you can see the padding underneath.  But yet she finds the money to buy only organic foods, as well as  mountains of expensive scrapbooking and arts & crafts supplies to entertain her children.  
  • We have all seen dilapidated mobile homes in such bad shape that the inhabitants are truly living in third world conditions - with satellite TV dishes hanging off the side.   
  • And, I had friends who bought a huge, incredibly gorgeous house in an exclusive area, but were then so house-poor that they couldn't afford furniture....and scraped every penny just to buy basic food and clothing at Walmart for their children for the next 5 years until they finally gave up and sold.

When my husband and I were going to grad school together I was the perfectionist of the two of us.  Taking the same classes, we faced every deadline together as a team.  However, I would always go the extra mile.  He would spend 4 hours writing a research paper, while I would stay up all night and spend 10.  He would wake up in the morning and just shake his head at me, not believing I was still banging away at the keyboard.  Despite working full time, I killed myself reading every single assignment in depth, taking notes as I went.  He would skim them, and only read what interested him.

I spent at least double the time he did on that class, and of course the difference was reflected in our grades.  On those research papers he would come in with an 88%, where I would  get  98%.  Don't think I didn't tease the hell out of him...."I'm smarter than you!"

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At the end of the term, he came out with a 92% (A minus), while I received a 97% (A plus).   When I went to razz my husband about doing better than him, he pointed out something I had missed.  While he only spent half the time and energy on the class, he still got an A minus.  All of those all-nighters I pulled while he slept soundly, all of the times I skipped dinner or going to the gym --or spending time with our family-- to work on assignments only resulted in a 5% difference in final grade.

Photobucket"The bottom line is that we both got an A.", he said.   Suddenly his way seemed much smarter.

In the final analysis, I would have gladly taken a 5% point reduction in final grade (still coming out with an A-) and spent half that time working.  Often times the extra cost --in time or money --to reach perfection isn't worth it.  (The Law of Diminishing returns.)


The Law of Diminishing Returns The tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill toward a particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain level of result has been achieved
Further inputs into a system produce ever lower increases in outputs. Any extra input will not produce an equal or worthwhile return.

My interpretation is this:  If you look at pure perfection as being a 100% solution, you are (generally speaking) going to lead a great life if you aim for 80% in every area.

The first 80% gets you the biggest bang for the buck.  Each percent of that first eighty will result in a marked improvement on the outcome.  But, there comes a point in any endeavor, whether it is buying a couch or working on a term paper, that spending additional resources will not result in the same kind of improvement.  Will there be a further improvement?  Yes...there probably will.  But, the Law of Diminishing Returns states that there is a tipping point, where that further improvement will not be sufficient enough to justify tying up the additional resources.

There are penalties for breaking any law. 
For the Law of Diminishing Returns, the penalty is usually regret.

My couch is dead.  Five years ago we bought our first set of really nice living room furniture.  We saved our money for a sizable down-payment and bought it from the nicest furniture showroom in town -- and even still had to finance a one year loan to cover the cost.  Absolutely gorgeous, the set was top quality and we busted our budget to make the splurge.  But, with 3 kids, 2 dogs and a lot of butt imprints the couches have gone from straight out of the pages of a magazine to a lumpy, bumpy, uncomfortable eyesore....

It is out of character for us to splurge on a purchase like that.  This was a violation of the 80% rule that we try to live by, and we regret it to this day.  Our super-expensive living room set lasted no longer than the moderately-priced one it replaced.  And, although it  was arguably more beautiful than the more moderately-priced one.... was it beautiful enough in hindsight to justify paying so much more?  No.

Faced with sofa shopping once again, we are following our own advice this time around.  We just bought a Bauhaus sofa from CSN stores, on sale for $710 including delivery.  Nice sofa for a good price.  And, no regrets.

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This article was originally featured on RioDancesOnTheSand.com, a blog for the thinking person... Written by Rio Denali, a 30-something with peculiar curiosities, who makes the observations that many of us avoid. Full of useful links and entertaining articles, it is a fun favorite for the intelligent reader. For more great articles like this, please visit RioDancesOnTheSand.com.