Perfect is the enemy of good is an

aphorism An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tr ...

which means insistence on perfection often prevents implementation of good improvements. The

Pareto principle The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes (the "vital few"). Other names for this principle are the 80/20 rule, the law of the vital few, or the principle of factor sparsity. Manage ...

or 80–20 rule explains this numerically. For example, it commonly takes 20% of the full time to complete 80% of a task while to complete the last 20% of a task takes 80% of the effort. Achieving absolute

perfection Perfection is a state, variously, of completeness, flawlessness, or supreme excellence. The term is used to designate a range of diverse, if often kindred, concepts. These have historically been addressed in a number of discrete disciplines, ...

may be impossible and so, as increasing effort results in

diminishing returns In economics, diminishing returns are the decrease in marginal (incremental) output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production is incrementally increased, holding all other factors of production equal (ceteris pari ...

, further activity becomes increasingly inefficient.

Origin

In the English-speaking world the aphorism is commonly attributed to

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his '' nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity— ...

, who quoted an Italian proverb in his ''Questions sur l'Encyclopédie'' in 1770: "". It subsequently appeared in his

moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...

poem, , which starts Previously, around 1726, in his ,

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principa ...

wrote "" (The better is the mortal enemy of the good).

Antecedents

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

and other classical philosophers propounded the principle of the golden mean which counsels against

extremism Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied sha ...

in general. Its sense in English literature can be traced back to Shakespeare, In his tragedy, ''

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane a ...

'' (1606), the

Duke of Albany Duke of Albany is a peerage title that has occasionally been bestowed on the younger sons in the Scottish and later the British royal family, particularly in the Houses of Stuart and Hanover. History The Dukedom of Albany was first granted ...

warns of "striving to better, oft we mar what's well" and in Sonnet 103:

Variations

The 1893 ''Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources'' lists a similar proverb, which it claims is of Chinese provenance: "Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without one." More recent applications include

Robert Watson-Watt Sir Robert Alexander Watson Watt (13 April 1892 – 5 December 1973) was a Scottish pioneer of radio direction finding and radar technology. Watt began his career in radio physics with a job at the Met Office, where he began looking for accur ...

propounding a "cult of the imperfect", which he stated as "Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes"; economist

George Stigler George Joseph Stigler (; January 17, 1911 – December 1, 1991) was an American economist. He was the 1982 laureate in Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and is considered a key leader of the Chicago school of economics. Early life and e ...

's assertion that "If you never miss a plane, you're spending too much time at the airport"; and, in the field of computer program optimization,

Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer ...

's statement that "Premature optimization is the root of all evil".

Origin

Antecedents

Variations

See also

References

Further reading